A Lack of Control

How does one manage when one is not in control of so much of one's life?

This is the problem that haunts me frequently - even today, as I get ready to to head out.  My mind is already bubbling with the fact that it seems so little of what I face from day to day is in my control, but I am expected to live and work and produce competently within that lack of control.  It is as if one has no power, but all the accountability.

Stephen Covey fails me here in this regard.  He would say (as he does in The Seven Habits of Highly Responsible People) that I am responsible, that I have to power to choose my response. I may not control these situations, but I can control how I choose to act when they come up.  He would then (I think) point me to the the concentric circles of "Things in my control" surrounded by the larger circle of "Things outside of my control".  Concentrate on the things that are in your control, and you will expand the circle to include more of the things that are outside of your control.

My problem is that the even if I just try to manage the things that are in my control, the circle continues to contract rather than expand.  The things that I can control dwindle down (really) to those things that no-one else really wants to deal with, the things (that seem, at least) to be completely unnoticeable and unwanted.  Within these bounds, of course, I am told to "Exercise my authority" and "Be tenacious and dogmatic" - but being tenacious and dogmatic about the placement of the garbage can, in the end, is scarcely something that matters.

My time, I suppose, is still my own.  I can still choose how to use it and invest it.  I suppose even my responses remain my own, even as I recognize the fact that I can do very little to respond that will actually change my situation.

What am I missing that I could do to change the situation?  Or is this simply a reality that, like it or not, I simply need to accept?