500 Words a Week - Circles of Control

The circles of control were explained to me by a wise person during the week, and upon further reflection I’ve found it to be a great analogy for how we should distribute our attention.

The circles begin with the smallest and most central circle, the circle of control. This encompasses things and aspects we can directly control. We can take meaningful action, affect change and make a positive difference. Aspects within this circle may centre around our thoughts, beliefs and emotions, or our attitude and the work we do.

The next circle, the circle of influence, focus’ on the aspects we don’t have direct control over, but we can influence. Within this circle, we may or may not have the capacity to affect change. We can control our effort when it comes to this circle, but we cannot control the outcome. I think that’s an important distinction to make, as if we are aware we won’t be always able to control the outcome, we won’t feel so defeated or let it affect us so much when the outcome isn’t what we were hoping for.

The largest circle is the circle of concern. This includes factors, challenges and circumstances that we care about but are beyond our control or influence. This circle is quite expansive and can stem from the weather to other people’s actions, reactions and feelings. Unfortunately, this may be a circle where we allot the majority of our attention. Constantly worrying or fretting over that which we cannot control or cannot influence. An important point is that we don’t stop caring about elements in this circle, we just stop believing that we have the capacity to change them. Thus, limiting the disappointment we feel.

We focus on what we can control, in this we then take an active role in shaping our life and creating the outcomes we would like. If we spend too much time focusing on the circle of concern, trying to control things outside of our control, this can be intensely frustrating. We must acknowledge these limitations and stop worrying about things outside of our circle of control.

Upon reading around this topic further, I came across something Stephen Covey discusses about this topic. In focusing on your inner circle, on the things you can control and doing these things well, your circle of control begins to grow. Causing you to have the ability to create change in more areas. Similarly in our circle of influence, if we bring positive energy towards what we can already influence, our circle of influence will grow. Increasing our ability to influence other aspects. If you place all your energy into the circle of concern and those things you cannot change, your circle of influence will shrink as a result. This will not only drain your energy, but others may see you as negative or critical.