Consciousness is a wine; we are the emptiness that sips. You are not you, at least as you know you.

So many selves. There is a permanent, fixed self, the one who observes. There is a self that is in constant flux, constant flow, ever-changing and dynamic. What are we? What are we really? Why should we be at the mercy of the ever-changing self, to take it ever-so-seriously, when what we are is something more, the backdrop, rather than that which is projected? We are the blank canvas pulled down, not the cinema played upon it. Why should we build our home upon the mutable, the protean, the transitory? Can a house be built upon water? I prefer stone, I prefer bedrock — the bedrock of emptiness, of nothingness, a container and receptacle for consciousness, an observer and a witness — but oh, I’m nothing, and in this is freedom. How vulnerable and weak is it to hold onto an ego! How susceptible do we become. What treasures will you bring with you in your coffin? We come to this Earth and leave this Earth destitute and penniless. This is why humility is truth, this is why humility is freedom, this is why humility is greatness. We are of dust and return to dust. Nothing! And in this, does all of life become a play. A game. I don a theatrical mask. How can I take anything seriously knowing this? Reality itself is a dream and psychedelic experience. To realize this is to realize the self, to become a lucid dreamer. 

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more practical:

The psychological need for control may be better defined as the psychological need for potency. We need to feel like the actions we take will have effect. Why act if nothing you do will make a difference? Those of us who struggle with inaction may have had periods of time where no matter what we did, circumstances would not improve. Or, we may have had someone who undermined our own will, who refused to let us make our own decisions, who exerted control over us — presumably out of fear or a lack of control elsewhere in their own life.

Ultimately, I am realizing — in my own life — that the key to happiness right now is action. There is much to be done, and it will be very, very rewarding. Especially having my own home, I’m going to experience a degree of control and potency that I’ve never experienced once in my life. This might contribute to a healthy sense of masculinity.