The Power to Control Your Life

by David Roy in Advice, October 22, 2009

Yes, you have the power to choose. You have the power to control your life. You have the power to control yourself. And that’s your greatest power.

Last week, after a day of work, I was home alone watching TV and having dinner. I had two big plates of spaghetti with salad, bread and dessert but I was still hungry. I opened the fridge and started looking for something to eat. I saw chocolate ice cream in the freezer and I thought I should have some but I decided to wait a little bit. I closed the freezer and went back watching TV. I was sitting on the couch and kept thinking about the chocolate ice cream. I was thinking how much it is going to make me feel good. I was imagining myself eating the ice cream and having pleasure tasting the delicious ice cream. As I was about to stand up to go in the freezer to get the ice cream, I realized I had the power to say “no”. I had the power to control my hunger and to control myself. I decided to turn off the TV and to go take a shower. After that, I went for a walk outside and I completely forgot about the ice cream. When I came back home, I was not hungry anymore and did not want ice cream anymore

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You see, what I did is I focused my thoughts on something else. If I keep thinking about how good the ice cream is and how good it is going to make me feel, it’s going be almost impossible to resist. However, if I start thinking about something else, I forget about my craving for ice cream and as a result I don’t eat it. I’m no better than anyone else but I think I’ve finally found a way to control myself.

So, the first trick is to start focusing your thoughts on something else. This way, you will forget about your initial craving and should be able to control yourself.

Another good technique is to tell yourself how good you’re going to feel if you control yourself and how bad you’re going to feel if you decide to eat the ice cream. For example, yesterday, I was craving for a chocolate bar. I have a big box of Mars chocolate bars at home and I have not opened the box yet. I was looking at the box and thinking how good a chocolate bar would be for me. I was thinking about opening the box and eating a bar quickly to satisfy my hunger. I took the box in my hands and started reading the nutritional facts: 33 grams of sugar, 5 grams of saturated fat and 9 grams of fat. I told myself: “No, I really don’t need all this sugar and all this fat. This is for losers and fat people like my friend Tyler. I’m healthy and I take care of my health. I don’t need food like that.” That’s exactly what I told myself and I did not eat the chocolate bar. Sorry for my friend Tyler. It’s not very nice what I said but it sure worked for me. Try it. It works.

There’s really a way to control ourselves. We can control ourselves if we can control our thoughts. Our thoughts control our behaviour. Start controlling your inner voice and you will start controlling your life. Make sure your inner voice is in alignment with your life goals. I wish you all the best. Take care and God bless you.