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Yesterday I was again reminded of the importance of taking control of life, making good choices and accepting responsibility.

I was gone all day yesterday and didn't get home until about 5:30 PM. I'm usually really good about recharging my cell phone, but I forgot to charge it and turned it off. When I checked the messages when I got home, there was a message from my sister telling me that my 17 year-old nephew Adam was in the ER. A drug overdose and the doctors were doing every thing they could. The message was already 4 hours old, not to mention the 1000 miles between us. I was already upset by that, so you can imagine my distress when I couldn't reach my sister. She called me back later, exhausted, but back home with Adam. As we talked, what struck me was that Adam blamed her for his drug problem; she made him do it!

If you know people with addiction issues, it's always somebody else's fault. But so it is with the rest of us. In reality, nobody can make you do anything. Each one of us makes choices and has to accept the consequences of those choices. Does somebody make me yell at my daughter? Nope, I make that choice. (Yes, I know it takes a lot of effort not to yell at kids!) Does somebody make me sit in front of the TV instead of going to the gym? Nope, again that's me and my choices. And the choices people make are what keeps life under control or sends it out of orbit

So how do you keep life under control? Make good healthy choices; take care of yourself by eating well, getting exercise and enough sleep. Being trapped by depression or any physical problem that limits your energy or distorts your thinking contributes to making poor choices.

Take control every day. When you get up in the morning, remind yourself that you are in charge of your thoughts, your attitude and your actions.

Most importantly, accept responsibility for your choices: let your actions reflect the person you want to be. The only person you can change is you. You can love others, help others, support others, but you can't make them change. I absolutely hate it when I have to apologize to my daughter because I made a poor choice. But I can't teach her to accept responsibility for her choices unless I accept responsibility for mine.

So what about Adam? I don't know. I can only hope that he remembers the person he truly is and makes good choices.