Believe It Or Not, But You Create Your Own World (With Real Life Examples)

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Source: CANVA

Yes, believe it or not, but you create your own world.

"How is that possible? We all live in the same world and we have no control over what is happening in the world", you might say.

Yes, I do agree. We all live in the same world and we cannot control everything that is happening around us. But we can control how we respond or react to what happens around us.

Your world is the space you live in. It is how you experience things and circumstances and how you respond to them.

First - A Bit of Fiction

I recently read this little (fictitious) story which illustrates this beautifully.

It is about Betty. Betty volunteers at least once a month to hand out blankets to needy people. She is always willing to lend a helping hand when it comes to charity work.

Sounds great, doesn't it?

But everybody knows her by the name "Bad-news Betty". She is married to a loving, caring husband. But she always tries to "protect" him by telling him not to get his hopes up for that big promotion at work.

They also have two lovely children and she also warns them to not expect to always win at their sports events or to stand out in any of the activities they are taking part in.

She does this out of love for her husband and her children to prevent them from being disappointed or from getting hurt when someone else gets better results than what they do.

Recently they went on a family vacation. They were still on their way to their destination when she started complaining.

She just knew this was a bad idea. "The lines to do anything in the amusement park are going to be a mile long", she said.

She also doubted if the hotel would be as good as advertised. Oh, and the weather...yes, she was convinced that the weather was going to be bad for the whole week as well.

No matter how hard her husband and their children were trying to convince her that everything was going to be fine, her mind was set.

And yes, all of her expectations were met...and maybe even more.

The lines in the amusement park were a bit longer than normal. While her husband and the kids didn't mind and just enjoyed the little extra time to joke around and have some fun with each other, Betty was moaning and groaning that "she knew this was going to happen".

That night, when they went to the restaurant, the waitress informed them that they didn't have the soft drink that they wanted. While her husband just ordered something else, Betty went on a rant saying how unbelievable this was.

To top it all off, as they arrived at their hotel room in the evening, the TV wasn't working properly. Betty's reaction was, "I knew it! I told you this hotel is not going to be any good!" Her husband just called the front desk and the maintenance immediately brought a new television up to the room.

Betty's vacation was exactly what she expected, while her husband and the kids actually had a great time.

While the story above is fiction, let's have a look at some real-life situations that comes to mind.

A Real Life Example

During the recent Olympic Games that were held in Tokyo, Japan, our own Tatjana Schoenmaker from South Africa did us proud by winning two medals in swimming events.

During an interview with her coach on local television here in South Africa, he mentioned how stressed he was about going to the Olympics.

Due to lockdown regulations caused by Covid-19, they couldn't train properly for more than a year.

In his own words, as her coach, he was completely stressed out, while Tatjana told him to relax and calm down. She pointed out to him that they have done all that they could and the rest is not under their control. Based on that, she was just determined to do her best.

The results? She not only won the gold medal for 200 meters breaststroke but she also set a new world record. She also won the silver medal in the 100 meters breaststroke.

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Source: CANVA

Another Real-Life Example

I love watching "The Dog Whisperer", Cesar Millan, in action. For me, it's just beyond words how he takes control of situations and the results he gets with these animals.

But there was one of his programs that I watched, where I picked up on something that I found quite amazing. It made such an impression on me, I don't think I'll ever forget it.

He received a request from a lady to come and assist her with their dog. If I remember correctly, it was an American Pit-bull... What I do remember is that it was one of these breeds that are normally associated with aggression and power.

Between this lady and her husband, they had a hard time actually controlling this animal.

When Cesar Millan arrived at their property, both the lady and her husband came out to meet him.

The husband was one huge guy himself. Very muscular and with an intimidating attitude. Being about twice the size of Cesar Millan, he towered over Cesar, not looking very friendly. It was almost as if his body language said "what makes you think you can come here and control my dog?"

I must admit, I got curious to see how Cesar was going to handle this. And this was exactly where it got interesting.

You may disagree with me and I might even be wrong...but this is what I saw and how I saw it. It may sound silly, but in my opinion, Cesar used the same tactics with this huge, intimidating guy as he does with the animals.

He didn't back off one inch. He calmly took a stance, directly facing the lady face-to-face, but at the same time, the husband was at least about 45 degrees to his side. It was completely as if he was blocking the guy out. He didn't allow this man into "his space". And there was nothing this guy could do about it.

Occasionally he would casually glance at the guy during the conversation, just to focus on the lady again. Sometimes, this guy would make some remarks...almost like challenging remarks, which were just ignored.

Eventually, this guy started to become quieter and even backed off a bit, getting a little more distance between himself and Cesar. As this happened Cesar gradually started turning towards him and reaching out to him, including him more in the conversation.

The results were astonishing. By the end of Cesar's visit, this guy was friendly and kind, asking questions and actually having a good conversation with Cesar. They were talking as if they've been friends for a long time.

I was almost more impressed in this case with how he handled the owner than his results with the animal...lol.

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Source: CANVA

Conclusion

We cannot control everything that happens in the world out there. But we can control how we respond or react to things. We can control how and what we think.

Yes, sometimes the unexpected happens, and there is nothing we can do about it. But in general, we kind of get what we expect.

What do you expect for the rest of your week? Are you thinking of everything thing that can go wrong? Are you thinking about all the reasons why you won't be making your targets? Or do you expect to achieve your targets/goals or even better?

Share your thoughts with us in the comment section.

I will leave you with two quotes to think about.

Change your thoughts and you change your world. ~ Norman Vincent Peale

Life is what we make it, always has been, always will be. ~ Grandma Moses

This post is day 2 for my #ctpcontent challenge.

I hope this post was helpful to you.



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But we can control how we respond or react to things.

I think this is really a powerful message. We all react in different ways to the obstacles in our life but it's on the how we respeond to them that we can work best. In the end it makes us realize that it's in our power to change our world.

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Thank you for giving your input, Achim. I do appreciate it.

In the end it makes us realize that it's in our power to change our world.

That is so true! And when each of us works at this as individuals and we then combine our efforts in a positive way, we can make such a positive impact in the world as we know it.

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