Life is like a box of chocolates but it is about control of your own life. In many of our previous articles we discuss the importance of control and discipline over your feelings, emotions, money and family but we have never taken the time to discuss the discipline we all have with ourselves. In the game of life, there are two types of player, the driver and the passenger. Both types have their pros and cons but only one is usually associated with successful entrepreneurs; and that would be the driver.
If you are a driver, then you control all the elements in your life and never blame anyone but yourself for life’s outcomes. You are very driven and understand that hard work will help you get there. Most drivers are entrepreneurs and make no excuses when they fail; instead they turn the situation around by making sure they don’t drive the same road twice.
The passenger on the other hand likes to go with the flow and really doesn’t see the need to lead the way, instead a more relaxed approach to life can be seen in their actions, they are often blaming their problems on someone else’s actions and often don’t see what they do wrong as they do not believe they could have impacted their circumstance. They have reasons and excuses for all their failures and no strategy for winning.
Going back to the driver, anyone can become a driver, no matter how long they have been riding shotgun, there is always opportunity to change things and get in the driver’s seat. There will come a time when you will realize that life is only what you make it to be, and that unless you drive you will never get what you want. You must be engaged with life and understand how well to drive your results to where you want them. I challenge all of you that read this that are passengers to change your way of thinking and try it out for a month. Try to decide that no matter what happens this next month that it will all be because of you. Good or bad, accept that you could have changed the outcome if you wanted to. Try to think of how you could have changed the outcome,even when very difficult.
Example: You got in trouble because of your friend for something that they did, but you are their friend so you got caught up in it. Well, how is that your fault? You are innocent in every way right? If you are the passenger then yes but you are the driver, so no because: you could have analyzed your friend, their past, culture, way of life and beliefs and clearly have seen they were not a match for you, therefore controlled your life earlier by stopping the relationship before it impacts you. As the driver, there are no excuses, only solutions even if they do not seem obvious at first.
If you can learn to see how the outcomes of just about any decisions are related to past or present choices, then you will understand why the driver seat is the one you want to be in and why the passenger seat is simply a roller coaster ride, it starts, it ends, and it loops around itself but at the end of the day it only brings you back to the same place you started with nothing more in your hand than what you had when you got on.
