Controlling the Weather

There was once a man sitting in his house and worried about his leaky roof. Anxiously, and almost obsessively, he keeps checking the weather report to see if rain is in the forecast. Seeing that there is a chance of rain, he gets on the internet to explore ways of delaying the rain. He’s heard of rain dances, can there be a ceremony for the opposite? Like a drought two-step? A sunny shuffle? He checks the weather report again. Still rain.

Surely there must be a way to change the weather. He checks Amazon for a device that can alter weather systems (after all, Amazon has everything, right?). No luck, Amazon is fresh out of weather machines.

Maybe he can set up all his fans outside and point them at the clouds, pushing them away. He even employs a hair dryer or two. That doesn’t seem to work either, so he checks the forecast again: rain. Drat!

After many more glances at the weather report and even a few rain dances done in reverse order, the man collapses, exhausted by both his repeated efforts to control the weather and from his own worry. He goes to bed wrought with anxiety and hopes it won’t rain while he tries to sleep. It’s unfortunate he never thought to fix his roof.

It’s easy to get caught up dwelling on and stressing about the factors of your life you can’t control. It seems this is where your attention is naturally drawn. However, not only does this create a lot of unnecessary anxiety, it also distracts you from the areas of your life that you can control. Furthermore, it drains you of your energy to leverage that influence.

Don’t stress about the weather, just fix your roof.

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