Circle of Control

Last year, during one of my coaching sessions, I wrote a short description of the well-known topic of Circle of Control / Circle of Influence.  I first came across this in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, and more recently as the Zorro Circle from The Happiness Advantage.  Essentially it's a way of removing clutter and bringing back control to your life - personal and professional. I'm posting the exercise here as a reminder to myself, for future reference.

Exercise Description

People often worry about a hundred and one things, clogging up their mind-space with things that really shouldn't be there.

Try this for an exercise:

Write down all the things that are bugging you, annoying you, or causing you to stress over.

Then carefully look at each item moving each one to one of two lists:

1) Within my circle of control

2) Outside my circle of control

When you sorted your list out into these two columns - you can

1) Ignore and send all those outside your control to the trash!! And...Feel the relief!

2) Work on the things within your control, set priorities, and try to focus on one small win at a time.

Your circle of control is basically the things you have direct responsibility for, that you have the power to change, and improve.Outside your circle of control are basically stuff that is outside your hands, someone else's responsibility, nothing you can do to change it - i.e. you cannot influence, or effect change in any way, shape or form, so why bother??

Good Luck!!