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# Everything seems under control
- URL: https://vaughan.ai/blog/everything-seems-under-control/
- Published: 2015-05-13T06:26:25.000Z
- Updated: 2026-11-07T23:21:01.000Z
- Author: Vaughan Fergusson
- Tags: Life Lessons, Nothing Is Impossible, Startup, #medium-import

My goal is to live a full life. “Full” is fairly subjective I realise. I started out small and have been adding more and more as I go. I am getting better at this and consider myself a student of living a full and rewarding life. I hope to be a master one day.

![](https://vaughan.ai/content/images/2026/11/a6df80f9fa42.png)

Every now and then I get this overwhelming feeling that everything is out of control. “Stop the world, I want to get off” curiously is a phrase that always pops into my head when this happens. Or I feel like I want to go hide in a cave for a winter. It’s a trigger I have taught myself. A trigger that tells me I am pushing too hard, and one that is meant to remind me that is not at all bad. It means I’m filling my life, but perhaps filling it just a little too fast.

Mario Andretti summed it up pretty well. “If everything seems under control, you’re not going fast enough.”

When you reach a limit on something in your life two things can happen. Back off on something to get back in control, or learn how to navigate past it quickly. I attempt the latter, and then take no shame in backing off if I can’t navigate it.

But feeling this way can feel terrible. You feel like you are not in control. You are a victim, and bad things will happen to you. Or you can realise that you are just reaching a limit, and this is most definitely a temporary thing.

Mario’s quote resonates. Professionally, at Vend we strive to fail fast. We try things quickly and then navigate the limit or fail and back off and try again. But in recent years I have adopted this philosophy personally too.

Life is just too short to waste contemplating things, or being stuck in a groove. So I add new things to my life, and explore new things frequently. Some are great experiences, some just terrible terrible terrible. When I want the world to stop, and if I want control back again, I remind myself to just slow down a bit. This way there is no such thing as out of control, you may lose it temporarily but you can always resume some semblance of control. Always. When you feel back in control, push hard again and see if you can accelerate past it. Like Mario.

Time is a finite resource. Optimise everything to make good use of it. You have a finite number of hours left. Put every one of them to good use. Go fast, feel out of control. Then you know you are filling your life.