Your Circle of Influence
What I can't control:
The FAA shutting down airlines on 1/11/2023 because their infrastructure broke.
Southwest airlines shutting down tons of flights and leaving hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded for days.
What the news chooses to highlight as so-called news.
What others say about anything, including me.
The weather outside, pretty frightful.
The immorality of our politicians, and where they focus their time and efforts.
My DNA, personality, genetics (love handles, baldness, etc.)
Organizational policies that hurt people, even subtly
What I can control:
What I learn
How I talk (the words I choose)
How sarcastic I am
领英推荐
How I treat others
What food I put into my mouth
The exercise I choose to do, including frequency
Who I vote for
Who I support with my wallet
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In the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (which is a must-read book), Covey talks about spending your time and thoughts on things within, or outside of, your "circle of influence."
Figuring this out, and spending the right time in the right places, can have a significant impact on your stress (and thus, your health), relationships, happiness, internal peace, etc.
I'm NOT saying to shy away from big things that are important. Want to fight against some injustice? Go for it. Do it. Maybe you figure out how to put things outside of your circle of influence inside your circle of influence.
I invite you to do that with intention. Instead of sitting around fretting, to the point of analysis paralysis, about things that don't really impact you, and/or you can't impact them, figure out where you need to spend your time.
An analogy might be this: You have a family around you that loves you and wants to spend time with you. Instead of investing in them you spend all your time watching dreary, sky-is-falling news, and ignore and neglect them.
I'm NOT saying to not watch the news. I posted about this on Twitter months ago and someone responded as if I was saying to ignore the big world issues and not care about anything. That is NOT what I'm saying. Instead of spending all of your time and effort, and getting all worked up, with things outside your circle of influence, satisfy every bit of what is inside your circle of influence.
Be intentional about where you invest yourself.
Career Coach ? People Connector | Relationship Builder | LinkedIn Expertise | Facilitator
1 年Couldn't agree more with you, Jason! This post is such a good reminder to all of us because we can cause so much unnecessary stress on ourselves if we don't heed these principles of 'what you can control' and 'what you can't control.' When I'm speaking to job seekers about their career transition, it can be daunting to think about the parts of the job search that you can't control. Focusing on what you can control helps you continue to move forward as well as what is most important.
Providing tools to navigate burnout and life/career transitions | Transforming organizations through human centered leadership, culture, and employee experience
1 年It's definitely about striking a balance of being informed but not obsessed or overtaken by the news. I'm working on keeping an eye on what's going on as it can be relevant to my job but outside of that I'm working to better maximize the things I can control so I don't just feel bad about the state of the world.
? Job Search & Interview Coach ? Profile & Resume Coach ? Author of Amazon Bestseller (“Excellent” – Forbes)
1 年Amen! I know somebody who makes himself feel bad following every last up and down of the latest awful news--and then he does nothing with the information. Also nice to see the reminder that we can have a real impact paying attention to what/who we support with our wallets.