Spending Time in my Circle of Influence

Do you ever wake up stressed in the middle of the night and struggle to fall back asleep?  Your mind starts to race about things that happened yesterday or are due tomorrow and you just can’t shut it off.  Asking for a friend. I think most of us have had a night like that.  Many of us have more than one.  But for me, when I wake up and start to work on the problem, my anxiety goes down.  The challenge might still exist, but my focus changes from all of what could happen to what I can do about it. I have shifted to my “circle of influence.”  Stephen Covey talks about this concept in his amazing book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.”  Covey explains that everyone has a circle of influence where they have direct control.  Inside this circle, they can have a big impact on their day, and ultimately, their life.  The challenge is, many of us spend a lot of our time focused outside of that circle.  We worry and we fret over the economy, the President, other people’s opinions, and even the weather.   These (and so many other things) are outside of our circle of influence.  They create stress and worry and (most importantly) we can’t do ANYTHING about them.  It’s a waste of time and energy.  This is the inspiration for today’s VLOG.  There are 3 things that I don’t pay any attention to.  They are outside of my circle of influence. That’s why, when people ask me, “what’s the weather supposed to be like tomorrow,” I can honestly say “I have no idea.”  I found that the weather forecast was a source of constant frustration for me.  That may be silly, but I either didn’t like what was supposed to happen, or it was not what was predicted.   Most importantly, I couldn’t do anything about it.  So I shut it off. What are those things in your world?  What is a source of frustration for you that you can’t do anything about?  It might be time to focus on your “circle of influence.” Make sure you never miss an update!  Sign up to become a VIP.  We send out one email per week to catch you up on all of the content!  You can sign up here.