How much control do you have over your own life?

As much as I would like to say that I feel like I control my own destiny and my own decisions shape my world, deep down I feel like I am a small ship in the middle of a big storm. I am tossed every which way regardless of my desire to pursue any particular direction. So i suppose I have a more external locus of control.

What about you? Who do you think has the most control over your life?

Note:

Internal Locus of control: you are in control

External LOC: External influences are mostly in control.

I have the control.

I have the control.

CosmicZombie

Nobody is in control of their own life.

i like most people like to belive that i am in control all the time but sadly this is merely an illusion we humas produce(basically lying to ourselves) most likely to comfort ourselves and make us feel important and like our lives and our desisions and beliefs matter.

[QUOTE="CosmicZombie"]

I have the control.

MrGeezer

Nobody is in control of their own life.

At the moment....

I live in my parents basement.. i just graduated from college with a bachelor in Mechanical Engineering.

in a middle waypoint waiting for responses from some schools i'm trying to get in for masters program.

Also going to Saudi at SOME point this summer... to look for work..

if that fails... i'm looking for work somewhere in the states.

but at the moment i live at the mercy of my parents (specifically dad.)...

so it's boring and demoralizing at the moment...

I have the control,but sometimes i feel it ain't working the way i want...hell part of my life was ruined by this selfish horrible person who ended up braking my heart...and destroying my feelings..

Nobody controls their own lives, really. You might simply have the illusion of control.

To give an example, most of you are never going to be fit enough to join the Green Berets. Your set of characteristics you were given at birth does not allow for that.

I let the cosmos guide me :o

So far...no luck.

I let the cosmos guide me :O

Joshywaa

There is to a degree some control, but it is not absolute.

My subconscious does most of the work. He sometimes makes really poor choices. :x

[QUOTE="Joshywaa"]

I let the cosmos guide me :O

UCF_Knight

No way :x

She ain't getting my cosmo magazines nuh uh no way no how.

:|

The older I get the less control I seem to have. Maybe that's just me.

I don't understand how people think nobody has control. You can be forced to respond to sudden changes, but people ultimately make their own decisions and lead their life accordingly.UCF_Knight

Because that in fact means that you don't have control over how your life turns out.

Sudden changes very often don't merely become a minor obstacle, they very often completely shut off or open major life courses. One person with no prospects whatsoever gets lucky by a chance encountrer with someone who can make him a movie star. Another dude with everything going for him loses everything in an environmental disaster, and then he gets a terminal illness after finding out that his son is a serial rapist.

That kind of stuff happens.

All that anyone can do is to do the best they can with the choices that are open to them. But that's overall a quite small level of personal control.

[QUOTE="UCF_Knight"]I don't understand how people think nobody has control. You can be forced to respond to sudden changes, but people ultimately make their own decisions and lead their life accordingly.MrGeezer

Because that in fact means that you don't have control over how your life turns out.

Sudden changes very often don't merely become a minor obstacle, they very often completely shut off or open major life courses. One person with no prospects whatsoever gets lucky by a chance encountrer with someone who can make him a movie star. Another dude with everything going for him loses everything in an environmental disaster, and then he gets a terminal illness after finding out that his son is a serial rapist.

That kind of stuff happens.

All that anyone can do is to do the best they can with the choices that are open to them. But that's overall a quite small level of personal control.

I hate it when that happens,

potentially we are 100% in control of our own lives.t3hrubikscube

That's only the case if we were all capable of exploring EVERY path in life.

To take an extreme example, I know a mentally retarded dude. Sure he's "in control of his own life" in the sense that he decides what to eat for breakfast (and even this isn't absolute, as he sure as hell can't afford to eat lobster), but he's retarded. He was always retarded, he's retarded now, and he'll be retarded on the day that he dies. Any job or life path which would require him to NOT be retarded is and always has been closed to him. He never had control over that aspect of his life, and he never will.

Again, an extreme example. But for everyone, certain paths are closed or opened for us before we are even born. We do NOT have unlimited potential. We START with certain things being decided for us, and then our lives continue to be molded by external forces until the day we die.

[QUOTE="t3hrubikscube"]potentially we are 100% in control of our own lives.MrGeezer

That's only the case if we were all capable of exploring EVERY path in life.

To take an extreme example, I know a mentally retarded dude. Sure he's "in control of his own life" in the sense that he decides what to eat for breakfast (and even this isn't absolute, as he sure as hell can't afford to eat lobster), but he's retarded. He was always retarded, he's retarded now, and he'll be retarded on the day that he dies. Any job or life path which would require him to NOT be retarded is and always has been closed to him. He never had control over that aspect of his life, and he never will.

Again, an extreme example. But for everyone, certain paths are closed or opened for us before we are even born. We do NOT have unlimited potential. We START with certain things being decided for us, and then our lives continue to be molded by external forces until the day we die.

[QUOTE="t3hrubikscube"]potentially we are 100% in control of our own lives.MrGeezer

That's only the case if we were all capable of exploring EVERY path in life.

To take an extreme example, I know a mentally retarded dude. Sure he's "in control of his own life" in the sense that he decides what to eat for breakfast (and even this isn't absolute, as he sure as hell can't afford to eat lobster), but he's retarded. He was always retarded, he's retarded now, and he'll be retarded on the day that he dies. Any job or life path which would require him to NOT be retarded is and always has been closed to him. He never had control over that aspect of his life, and he never will.

Again, an extreme example. But for everyone, certain paths are closed or opened for us before we are even born. We do NOT have unlimited potential. We START with certain things being decided for us, and then our lives continue to be molded by external forces until the day we die.

The person typing this doesn't have contol over anything.
But i am slowly gaining control, hopefully.

I have no control over life and I know I never will.

I have no control over life and I know I never will.

Raiden004

[QUOTE="MrGeezer"]

[QUOTE="t3hrubikscube"]potentially we are 100% in control of our own lives.t3hrubikscube

That's only the case if we were all capable of exploring EVERY path in life.

To take an extreme example, I know a mentally retarded dude. Sure he's "in control of his own life" in the sense that he decides what to eat for breakfast (and even this isn't absolute, as he sure as hell can't afford to eat lobster), but he's retarded. He was always retarded, he's retarded now, and he'll be retarded on the day that he dies. Any job or life path which would require him to NOT be retarded is and always has been closed to him. He never had control over that aspect of his life, and he never will.

Again, an extreme example. But for everyone, certain paths are closed or opened for us before we are even born. We do NOT have unlimited potential. We START with certain things being decided for us, and then our lives continue to be molded by external forces until the day we die.

We have control on what choices we make, but not so much on what happens around us.

External forces always have some degree of control over you, but the way you react is up to you. The world is like an interconnected web where the actions of one person always effects the people around them, and external events are thrown in just for randomness. But the most important thing is that you chose the way that you react to these influences.

I consider myself free and at liberty to make my own choices, but I needlessly let people pressure me into making decisions even if they don't directly make me do it. I get stressed and worried about pleasing other people that I sometimes forget to make decisions that benefit me. For the most part though I've made my own decisions and have lived my own life.

Live with parents so...

To quote an ex-girlfriend, "You're happy so long as you think you are in control." o_O

I have Control.

You decide whether you want to swim against the current or flow with it.