A friend of mine has made the profound observation all we can control are “causes” and not “effects.”
What he means is too often we focus on the effect our actions, words, and plans have, but if we think about it, we control little of such outcomes; too many factors play roles in determining how things turn out. All we control are causes: what we choose to initiative, prompt and set in motion.
This insight provides us with the Life Equation: Success = Causes – Effects.
If we focus on creating worthy causes in our lives the effects will unfold as they will, and often in surprising ways. But if we focus instead on the effects, we might set aside the potential to put something in motion because we will worry how it will turn out.
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On Emotions 