“You cannot control what happens to you, but you can control your attitude toward what happens to you, and in that, you will be mastering change rather than allowing it to master you.”

— Brian Tracy

I did something a little different tonight.

I went back to sparked.com to volunteer and saw that Nourish America’s web page needed some help. I spent some time going over their site and related materials. I added my comments. I closed my browser and went back to my business. So far, pretty standard and straight-forward volunteering.

But then I did something a little different.

I came back to their site and gave,

Why? Because I could. Because I wanted to help them a little more than just advice. Because I was in a good mood. And because I was in control.

If I had been asked for $5, I might have said ‘no’ out of reflex.

That tiny bit of control is what made all the difference. I was in control and I wanted to help.

When we choose to give something, we need to retain some control otherwise we feel overwhelmed. If we feel out of control, we can quickly dejected, closed and stingy.

It is the difference between saying ‘yes’ out of guilt or out of benevolence.

Control can be nothing more than an attitude and while we cannot control everything, we can control our attitudes.

Helped out Nourish America with a few ideas and donated $5 … just because I could.