Taking Control and Letting Go

In a moment, you can take control.

In any situation, you can take the reigns, and impart on it an action that changes the situation at hand.

Without this action, events would play out on their own, but instead, you exerted influence. And that influence ripples across time and interconnected events.

Done as a reaction, taking control is about trying to pour concrete on shifting sands.

Done proactively and with poise, taking control is about reducing unknown variables, and preparing the ground for an outcome to take shape.

Taking control is like a trust fall with time and space.

Reactively taking control is like trying to superglue a shattered vase back together.

On the other hand, in that same moment, you can give up control.

You can “let go” as they say.

Letting go is about allowing energy to continue forward in motion without disruption.

If a domino has started a chain of other falling dominos, then why interrupt the chain?

Reactively letting go is like setting sail in the ocean without a direction and hoping to arrive on the right island.

You will get somewhere, but is it where you would have liked to arrive?

Stranger still, you can take control while letting go, and let go while taking control.

The trust fall was your decision, and it's in your control to lean in or not.

But the outcome took letting go.

It’s this third space that seems to be the optimal path for seizing the moment.

To be a healthy leader of yourself and others is about managing this dynamic between control and letting go of it.

It’s about recognizing the areas in which control and power are reactive.

Balancing the two is how you manage the moment.

By being in control while letting go.

xx David