I was out for my early morning power walk along the sea wall.  The waters of False Creek were sparkling in the sunlight,  birds were chattering away and I inhaled the oxygen in the cool sweet air coming off the water and felt good.  

My book is in the print stage, finally. E-Book launch planned for late May. And my first few podcasts are recorded. Launch date April 28. Business is doing well, and I am making new friends locally and afar.  My family is great and I’m In touch with my overseas extended family who are all well. 

And I have kept up on track with this blogging challenge. We are half way through.  

So why were the words coming into my mind for Saturday’s mindset post on the letter O not Optimism or Overjoy but instead Overload and Overwhelm? I think the answer is the word control. 

A key concept that came up a couple of weeks ago in the Darren Hardy leadership program I am doing, was that of   ‘locus of control’.  Individuals who accepts responsibility for their choices and believe that events in their lives result from their own actions, have an internal locus of control.  

The individuals who blame everything on other people or  external forces  operate with an external locus of control. Never taking responsibility means that they are powerliess to change things. 

I have always operated from an internal locus of control. I believe that I am responsible for my life, my thoughts, my actions. If I don’t do the work, I can’t blame anything else for poor results.

But in order to make good choices, one must have good data. The problem right now is that my confidence in every form of authority is non-existent. The conflicting information, fake news, publications that make headlines and then have to be retracted, the cancel culture, on-line fraud… it’s endless. It’s very difficult, even for someone  like me who has spent years reading medical journals to find the time… and the will to wade through masses of conflicting data and know what is real and what is not.  

So here I am blaming outside forces for my inability to make a key decision. Giving up control, right? That’s why it’s Overwhelm not Optimism. I need the weekend off.