Ever feel like life’s pushing you out into the street in front of a moving bus? There’s one sure way to see that doesn’t happen to you and that’s to get off the street and get behind the wheel of the bus. If you’re feeling like life’s giving you the runaround, it’s because you’re not in the driver’s seat.
You might think, “Okay, I’ll drive the bus.” So you get behind the wheel and at the first stop light, you get distracted by someone or something at the intersection and go to check it out, before you know it your bus takes off without you. It takes a certain amount of attention and diligence to stay behind the wheel of the bus. Driving your bus is impossible if you can’t stay in the driver’s seat most of the time. If you can’t do that, the best you can ever hope to be is a passenger.
As most of us are passengers, someone else is doing the driving and we just go along with wherever we go or whatever happens. If bored of the ride, we could opt to get off the bus and look for a different bus. In this case you may have control of which bus your on, but not as much control as you might have being the driver.
It can be intimidating, if you’ve never driven you bus before. I think most of us wonder if we’re going to be any good at driving the bus once we get in the driver’s seat. It’s okay. Even many of us who spend a lot of time in the driver’s seat, like to take a break and let someone do the driving for a while, and a few are driving instructors.
If you’re upset about the journey your bus is on, feeling bad about it, complaining about it, accusing others of changing up the trip, or waiting too long at a particular stop along the way, is not going to change a thing. If you are feeling negative emotions about your journey, it’s a clear indication that you’re stuck in the back of the bus. It’s not assigned seating. You sat in the seat you’re in, so you best stop moping about it and start moving forward in the bus at the next stop.
As you move closer to the front of the bus, you don’t even have to be the driver, and you can get the advantage of seeing things that are coming up. You are a lot more excited about your journey and its potentials from this vantage point. You feel way better than being in the back of the bus, where you can’t really see anything but the other passengers in front of you and what your bus is passing.
If you’re not feeling so good about your journey, the first thing to do is to take a look at where you are on the bus and at the next opportunity move. Raise your awareness and look at your journey from a different perspective. That may be all you need to feel so much better about your journey, but I have to warn you, the allure of the driver’s seat is much greater from the front seats of the bus.
You can do a pretty good job of discerning where someone sits on the bus. Just go into a restaurant where a tour bus is parked outside and walk around the tables eavesdropping on each table. You will find people grouped together talking among themselves about their journey. The ones from the front of the bus are focused on all the good and exciting things, while the groups from the back of the bus are complaining and not very happy.
If you’re stuck in the, “Woe is me,” attitude, it’s hard to expect anything better. But once you’ve made the decision to change your position on the bus, your attention is looking forward on the bus, looking for a better seat at the next stop, not focused on you dismal seat.
Sure, stuff happens, and you find yourself sandwiched between a less than fragrant passenger and another one who is trying to sell you something. Just play along, while keeping your attention focused on a better position in the bus. Be polite, but do not fully engage in an intense battle of wits with either of these people. If you fully engage your attention and begin defending your position, you’ll be surprised when you notice that you’ve spent our efforts arguing (or feeling bad about being stuck here, or just pretending to be asleep) through several stops, missing opportunities to shift your position and moving to a better seat.
This works in all stations of life. You might be stuck in a seat in a college class, and suddenly decide you no longer want to feel like a rat in a cage anymore. Even with the awareness that your family and friends might like your decision to dropout and jump off at the next stop. You’re ready to start driving your own bus. That’s what one young man did and he was a billionaire by the time he was 31. That was his name? Oh, yeah, Bill Gates. You may have heard of him.
There are many stories of regular people, just like you and me, who were stuck on a bus but once it occurred to them there might be a better way, decided to start looking at ways to get behind the wheel.
Isn’t it time, now, for you to get behind the wheel, or at least think about changing seats?