Energy Management and the Circle of Influence
*Original article on andersonmatias.co
How many times have you caught yourself stressed out by something that was totally out of your control? For me at least, I lost count of it. It is easy for each and every one of us to get consumed by things and situations that are not really up to us.
Although we have more power over the several different aspects of our lives than we think, there are still external factors or momentaneous contexts and states of mind which prevent us to have the impact we wanted on things that affect our welfare (or we think it does).
A couple of years ago, I had access to a great book called “The 7 habits of highly effective people”, by Stephen Covey. One of the biggest messages I’ve brought to my life after reading the book was the concept of Circle of Influence and Circle of Concern. In Covey’s words:
“Proactive people focus their efforts on their Circle of Influence. They work on the things they can do something about: health, children, problems at work. Reactive people focus their efforts in the Circle of Concern — things over which they have little or no control: the national debt, terrorism, the weather. Gaining an awareness of the areas in which we expend our energies in is a giant step in becoming proactive.”
This simple idea of focusing on what you can do, instead of complaining about what you can’t is so powerful, that it indeed brought me a whole new level of effectiveness regarding how to deal with how I feel about something and how I plan stuff, especially on the professional field.
You see, we as human beings are made out of energy on its several different forms. And as you may as well know, we don’t create energy, we just transform it. There are inputs and outputs, so you use what you absorb to produce something different. So as examples, every time we get pissed off with a colleague just because the way he/she is does not align with our beliefs; or we are annoyed because someone starts talking about a different creed than ours; or maybe when you get angry with the political situation of the country, this is our energy going down the toilet, not anyone else’s. Whenever you feel drained by the end of the day, think about what makes you feel this way and if you could do something about it. It may surprise you the number of things on our routine that take the best part of us without us even noticing it. The obvious consequence is that you likely won’t have enough energy to pursue what really matters to you and your loved ones. The obvious conclusion is that this is wasteful and generates a vicious loop, that drags you down and prevents you from reaching your goal. Reason enough to go for a change, don’t you think?
“ The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.” — Ken Blanchard
Of course, it is not always possible to simply eliminate such waste and mechanically give attention only to what really matters, we are not robots. The simple fact that a great portion of what drives us on every movement is subconscious makes it really hard sometimes to stop, think and take the right decision. The thing is, awareness is important and acknowledging at least some aspects on which you can better focus your energy is already a great benefit.
The great news is that our level of influence is not carved in stone for good, it is constantly changing and we can do something about it. When you do not just focus your energy on what you can do, but also work on expanding your circle of influence, that’s the moment when you are really playing the big game. What does it mean? Well, quick and easy example: people don’t listen to you because you are too negative or complain about everything. The simple fact that you switch to a more positive approach may have a huge impact on how people react to your message and guess what? It is your choice to be positive or negative. This can be applied to absolutely everything, so do this exercise and start to think about the different aspects of your life, about what you can do to make it better and how can you increase your different circles of influence, so you feel more empowered and in control of which direction your life is taking. Really, it is worth it!
What’s the impact you have around you, right now? What is the impact you wanted to have? What consumes you and you know it could be avoided? What would you do with the energy you could stop wasting on things that do not bring you any closer to your objectives?
Think about it, and impact the world with your answer…
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