Control What You Can and Let the Rest Go
Stop wasting your time and energy on things you can’t control.
Today I want to talk about concentrating on the things that you can control, and how to let go of what you can’t. Keep in mind that I’m not just talking about external events. Obviously, you control your schedule, what you eat, when or if you go to the gym, etc. But I’m also talking about internally. Your thoughts, your reactions, your personal choices every day, those are things you can control.
So, we can control our own actions, choices, and reactions. That’s number one, right? Number two, when we’re thinking about concentrating on what we can control, is not worrying about what others are thinking or doing. Because, although we can control a good piece of what happens around us and inside our daily lives, we can’t control what others are going to do, so spending time worrying about it or wasting energy trying to figure out what someone else is going to do does us no good either. Now, sometimes it could be good to spend some time and see what others are doing in your business world or in your industry. It’s always a good idea to take the pulse of the industry and keep up on new things or influencers in your field. But sitting and worrying about what others are doing takes time away from yourself and what you have going on. And remember, you can’t control what other people do; you can only control how you respond.
Now, I recognize that this is often easier said than done. Especially, if this is a new or newer concept for you. It’s easy to let the actions or opinions of other people, whether in business or in our personal lives, dictate how we react in any given situation. But it’s important to remember that you can’t control anyone else. Not really. And that includes what they think or even say about you.
So often I see people holding back on doing what they want, or what they know they need to do to start building their legacy because they are worried about what other people are going to think or say. But the truth is, holding yourself back from a goal because you are worried about what other people will think or say is never the right choice. Honestly, those are all just stories we tell ourselves anyway. I realized a long time ago that the people I was most worried about having an opinion probably weren’t thinking about me at all. I had to train my brain to quit running those stories through my mind, and just focus on the pieces I had control over.
And so I’m reminding myself as I’m reminding you that we need to stop focusing on the things we have no control over. Stop giving these stories power over your choices. Stop giving energy and attention to these things that you can’t control, and focus on your business, your relationships, your faith, and your health. Focus on the Big 4, and what you can control. Then make that a daily practice, and after a while, I think you’ll discover that you are moving forward toward your goals with laser focus because you’ve trained yourself not to give time or energy to what you can’t control.
What are some things that have happened in your past or that might be coming up in the future that you can’t control? How can you plan and prepare for things that come up that are out of your control? I wrote about contingencies and planning and not looking at things that might happen in the future as negatives or not allowing them to stress us out, but allowing ourselves to take the power from it by planning for it. If a curveball gets thrown your way, that’s okay, because your focus is on what you can control. You just know that you can adapt and overcome and still continue to grow, expand, and become stronger because you aren’t wasting time and energy on things that are out of your control.
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