Million Dollar Habits – Page 17
The Law of Control
The first law that I discovered was the Law of Control. This law says that,
“You
feel happy to the degree to which you feel you are in control of your own life. You
feel unhappy to the degree to which you feel you are not in control of your own
life.”
Modern psychology calls this “Locus of Control Theory.” Psychologists
differentiate between an
internal
locus of control and an
external
locus of control.
Your locus of control is where you feel the control exists in each area of your life.
This location determines your happiness or unhappiness more than any other
factor.
For example, if
you feel that you are the
primary creative force
in your own life,
that you make your own decisions, and that everything that happens to you is a
result of yourself and your own behaviors, you have a solid
internal
locus of
control.
As a result, you will feel strong, confident and happy. You will think with
greater clarity and perform at higher levels than the average person.
On the other hand, if you feel that your life is controlled by
other
factors or people,
by your job,
your boss, your childhood experiences, your bills, your health, your
family or anything else, you will have an
external
locus of control. You will feel
like a victim. You will feel like a pawn in the hands of fate.
You will soon develop
what Dr. Martin Seligman of the University of Pennsylvania calls “learned
helplessness.” You will feel helpless and unable to change or improve your
situation. You will soon develop the habit of blaming others and making excuses