So much of life is beyond our control.

Whether the bus will be on time, or if the price of gas will go up, if the business merger will happen, or we’ll ever meet someone we could spend a life with. Sometimes no matter how hard we work or how much courage we muster, things just don’t work out. After years of hard labor, we find ourselves staring at a what appears to be an impenetrable wall.

Our immediate gut reaction is often to try to take control. Sometimes we want to force things to work our way. But can you force the bus to be on time? Should you try to coerce a client to accept your proposal? Can you force someone you love to love you back? Of course not.

One of the lessons we learn earliest in life is that so much of is beyond our manipulation, our will, our control.

Sometimes, it takes great discipline not to try to control situations or others around us—especially our fate. It takes courage to have the willingness to accept a rejection, to embrace disappointment, and to simply let things unfold naturally.

Don’t manipulate or control. That is the opposite of love and respect. And there is a beauty in letting go, in celebrating the freedom and uniqueness of every person and every situation, and opening our arms wide to any possibility.

But this does not mean that we simply throw our hands up and stop trying. We can’t control whether or not we will get cancer, but we can control whether or not we will smoke.

We might not be able to control whether or not we will ever meet our life partner, but we can control what kind of person we will be so that when we do meet them, we’ll be ready. Being open to the mystery of life does not mean we should not be disciplined.

It takes great discipline to wait for the right moment, the right person, the right contract, the right career. And every day, every hour—even this very moment—we can choose to harvest the most of the situation. We can bless and stretch. We can grow and push. We can be at peace. It’s up to us, and we can start now.

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Edited by Hayley Samuelson.

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Sherri Rosen has her own publicity firm in NYC for over l2 years giving a powerful voice to people who are doing wonderful things in the world. She also writes for Gatekeeper’s Post, The Good Men Project, Her own blog, Redhead’s Blog, Triiibes, along with the wonderful elephant journal.  You can friend her on Facebook and Twitter.