I recently heard Mark Sanborn use the concept of surfing as a metaphor for life. When someone is surfing, they have no control over the waves—the waves are going to come and go regardless of what the surfer may want. The good surfer, though, is the one who learns to interact with whatever waves may come, big or small, and use them to create the outcome he’s looking for.
In life, there are many things we have absolutely no control over—just like the surfer doesn’t control the waves. But we do have control over how we interact with whatever comes our way. So instead of looking to magically change the circumstances, we can focus on how we can grow in the midst of the circumstances that we do encounter. Because ultimately we can’t control everything, but we can control our response—will we let the waves of life knock us over, or will we learn to roll with them, moving forward as we go?