We can create our world with our thoughts and attitude. There are, however, a few things we cannot control.

Beyond my control, my hair is turning gray.
Beyond my control, the crevices of wrinkles on my hand are getting deeper.
Beyond my control, I will be one year older on my birthday.

When I opened Gallery of Diamonds Jewelers in 1991 gold was $300 per ounce. I purchased a home. I continued adding to my mutual funds.

Beyond my control, gold is worth four times more today.
Beyond my control, I can sell my home for much more than I paid for it.
Beyond my control, the mutual funds I had so shrewdly saved dwindled to almost half its value.

Although the balance of the mutual funds was simply a number, it was a real number. Even though I would have been penalized for an early withdrawal, I still would have been much richer if I simply demanded the money before the relentless fall of the market. It was a painful lesson in relying on things beyond my control.

Therefore, I no longer invest money, time or thought into things I cannot harness. I do not slip quarters into slot machines in Vegas. I do not purchase lottery tickets.

So, other than trying to determine the value of stocks and bonds and the price of eggs in Oklahoma, it is more enjoyable to live in the realm of one’s talents and the things one loves and understands.

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference.

The Serenity Prayer American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971).