This is Optimal Living Daily Episode 1657, how to take complete control over the direction

of your life by Benjamin Hardy of Benjamin Hardy.com and I'm just a malloc the guy that reads

you articles or book excerpts every day including holidays, it's been over four and a half years

covering personal development or self-help, how to live a better life and a lot more,

always with permission from the authors or websites. Just hit the subscribe or follow button

in your podcast app to get new episodes for free. Today's post is from Popular Writer Benjamin

Hardy so let's get right to it and start optimizing your life. How to take complete control over

the direction of your life by Benjamin Hardy of Benjamin Hardy.com. We all grow up in different

situations with varying levels of privilege. Some grow up in dire situations in which survival

is their main concern. Others grow up knowing exactly what they want in life and are given the

means and attention for making it happen. Most of us though are somewhere in the middle.

Regardless of your experience growing up no matter how good or bad, there comes a point we need to

decide how you will respond. As Holocaust survivor Victor Frankl wrote in Man's Search for Meaning,

quote, everything can be taken from a man but one thing, the last of the human freedoms,

to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way and quote.

Somewhere inside every person, no matter how dimmed and defeated by their external environment,

is the ability to choose. The moment you decide things are going to change, they must change.

Even if the process takes years, you must still cling to your hope of a better future.

At least this was my experience. Growing up I began to feel powerless over the direction of my life.

My parents got divorced when I was 11, going in opposite directions. My two younger brothers and I

were sent into emotional, spiritual, and socio-economic freefall. To maintain any sense of control,

I ignored the reality of my situation through video games, skateboarding, and snowboarding.

...