Illusion Of Control

During every India Vs Pakistan cricket match, my father would wear a particular blue t-shirt with a matching blue color shorts and sit in a particular chain in our house. If someone else in my family sits in that chair, he would get tensed and tell them to get up from that chair immediately. If they didn't get up before the match starts, my father would start to have a panic attack. When asked why he is doing like that, he would say that if he didn't wear those sets of pants and t-shirts and if he didn't sit in that chair before the match begins, then the match would be lost. I found it interesting when I was a kid and I believed him but now I found it absurd.

Similarly, my friend always uses the same type of pen in all of his exams. One day, he told me to buy a pen for him during the exam. I went to the stationary shop and got a pen I saw first. He told, "Why did you buy this? Now I'm never going to pass my exams with good grades." I just stunned. I asked him, "Does it matter?" He stared at me blankly. He uses a type of pen from a particular brand.

The illusion of control is the inclination to believe we have influence over something when in reality we have no sway. Did my father really have influence in the match between India Vs Pakistan? Or was he thinking that he had influence? If he was having influence then what about the players playing in the field? And what about my friend? If a pen has to do with what grade he gets in the exams then why study for it? If he writes in a different pen, will he forget what he had learned?

People like to think that they have everything around them in their control where really they don't. In reality, people are in a little imaginary world which helps them to run their lives smoothly. People want to be happy and so they have the tendency to think they have everything in their control.

What about you? Do you think you have everything under your control? If so, then you should think again for you have less than you think. Don't think that you can control everything in your life. Just focus on the thing that you have real influence in your life. Focus on things that are important to you. For everything else: what happens, happens.