Who's Driving Your Bus?

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Rolypoli

On driving

“Going round and round makes me dizzy,” said circle.

Line simply smiled, knowing her friend was on the verge of something big. 

Thoughts while making...

When I was kid, I rode a bus to and from school just about every day for 8 years.

As a kid, I didn’t think much about driving that bus. But the other day, my counselor told me I’ve actually been a bus driver for most of my life. And you have, too.

Say what?!

We were talking about easy it can be to feel like we’re letting others “take the wheel” and drive us wherever they want to, especially when we haven’t defined where we want to go.

We were talking about what that kind of bus route (aka life) looks like, feels like; how we look back, look forward, and wonder where we’re going and why. How it may feel like we’re going in circles, but often not even realize it; just accepting that dizzying feeling.

And all because we didn’t truly understand we we’re driving the bus.

He put it like this: Countless times every day, you open those big yellow doors of your brain and let passengers come and go. Those “passengers” come in the form of thoughts, feelings, doubts, fears, loops, and so on.

Each one that boards your bus (aka in your space, in your head, in your thoughts) has their own story.

Some sit quietly.

Some make a scene.

Some are loud and obnoxious.

Many are hecklers.

The challenge is to realize that – on your bus – you’re always the driver; you always get to decide where you’re going and how you’ll get there.

And those passengers? Well, you get to make the rules. It is, after all, your bus, your brain, your life.

So, your option is to:

A. Define a route that feels right to you and then do your best to drive along it on a road paved of your values, or

B. Let every person (or thought or event) that boards your bus steer you wherever it wants.

Recently, any time I find myself looping OR feeling overwhelmed by a situation or circumstance OR letting one of my passengers take the wheel in my head, I say out loud: “Who’s driving the bus?”

And I answer, loudly, firmly, with conviction: “I’m driving the bus. I. Am. Driving. The. Bus!”

Who’s driving *your* bus today?