What Can I do? The Circles of Concern and Influence

What Can I do?

The Circles of Concern and Influence

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

~ Serenity Prayer

Let’s face it, life can be challenging. We all have things in our life that challenge us – whether it is people, situations or the environment we live in.

This is one of those lessons that is so painfully obvious it’s difficult to understand why anyone would bother to teach it. If we truly can’t change something then why would we ever spend any time on it? And yet, if you’re human like me, you know all too well that we spend a disproportionate amount of time thinking and acting on things that are fundamentally outside of our control. This element of human nature can have distracting and damaging consequences. As human beings, we have the capacity to be proactive. We can focus on the things that we can actually do something about, or we can add to the stress in our lives by worrying and fretting over the things we have no control over.

In his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey articulates this same point by distinguishing between our Circle of Concern (things we care about but can’t control) and our Circle of Influence (things we care about and can impact):

One thing I have come to realize over the years of working with a great number of people experiencing change, is how differently people either react to change or how they choose to respond to change. Those who effectively embrace change, focus their time and energy on things they actually have control over, instead of wasting their time and energy on things they don’t.

The Circle of Concern vs The Circle of Influence

The “Circle of Concern” includes the wide range of concerns you have in the world, your work and life – including health, family, finances, the economy, national debt etc. Everything you include inside the circle is a concern and matters to you and everything outside the circle is of little or no concern to you.

The challenge with the Circle of Concern is you start to realize that some of the things you find yourself concerned about are outside of your control and some are inside your realm of control.

For example – you may be concerned about the health of a family member or the economy, however can you really do anything about it?

This is why it is important to identify your Circle of Influence within your Circle of Concern.

Your Circle of Influence are the things that concern you that you can do something about. For example – you may be worried about the economy or climate change or coronavirus (i.e. circle of concern), however what can you do about it (i.e. your circle of influence)?

We could rightly say that there’s no point wasting time and energy on the things we can’t control. This is easy in theory but more difficult in practice. Covey’s approach might offer some guidance on how to apply this knowledge in the real World.

We can’t control the economy or a global pandemic. As we react, we tend to focus on the Circle of Concern, which depletes our energy, because we have no control over it. The energy focused on the Circle of Concern is negative. If you focus on the Circle of Concern and neglect the Circle of Influence, eventually the Circle of Influence will get smaller. This will add to feelings of stress and helplessness, because you cannot change anything in the Circle of Concern.

Adding the Circle of Control...

Personally, I believe there are 2 levels of Influence- Direct, the Circle of Control and Indirect, the Circle of Influence, so it just makes it clearer to articulate the power of choice. Subsequently – the diagram would look like this –

Covey would have us focus on what we can impact. He states that a positive and proactive focus on the things we can control will actually have a secondary effect of increasing our Circle of Influence. There is yet another deeper consideration- while there are things we have within our direct control, there are also many things that, while outside of direct control, are however, within our ability to influence (indirect control). By successfully focusing on the things we can influence within our own life, family, or business (e.g. our own actions, behaviors, planning, etc), that impact our own lives directly, we can indirectly have an impact on a larger scale. For example, by focusing on your own business or job, you not only directly affect your own economics, but may begin to have an influence in your local community economy which ultimately contributes on a small scale to a global economic impact or, in the example of climate change, make decisions to recycle that reduce our own direct impact and ultimately indirectly on the larger scale of global climate change.  And as we clearly see now, in a global pandemic, our positive personal choices on things within our direct control can have a systemic indirect positive impact on those around us.

In contrast, by spending too much time focused on the things we can’t control in our life, family, or business, we may actually reduce our influence on the things we should be able to control directly. Using the same example above, it’s not difficult to imagine a scenario where an unhealthy concern for what we can’t control leads us to make a reactive decision (e.g. hoarding toilet paper during a pandemic) which then backfires and reduces our ability to maneuver later.  This negative focus can create unintended negative outcomes.

Proactive people focus their efforts on their Circles of Influence & Control, which is the area we have control over and we can act upon. They work on the things they can do something about:  health, children, business, or work. When you act on your Circle of Influence you are able to reduce stress levels and increase happiness, because you can initiate and influence change.

Reactive people focus their efforts in the Circle of Concern--things over which they have little or no control: the national debt, terrorism, or the weather. Reactive people tend to neglect those issues that are under their control and influence. Their focus is elsewhere and their Circle of Influence shrinks.

“I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.” -- Dr. Stephen R. Covey

Gaining an awareness of the areas in which we expend our energies is a giant step in becoming proactive.

This concept is easy to remember and is a great tool to direct our energy and actions in meaningful ways on things we do have control over.

Over to You...

So now that you know about the Circles of Concern, Influence and Control, how are you going to apply this knowledge? You might like to invest some time reflecting on the following questions –

1. Where are you currently spending the majority of your focus & time? In the circle of concern or influence?

2. Are you currently being as personally effective as you can in your life?

3. What strategies or tools could you use to help you focus on the things you can control and transform your life?

4. What can you do today to expand your Circle of Influence to build more positive energy in your life and at work?

Feel free to share in the comments below or on our Facebook page, any questions or comments you might have.

Reclaim your courage and confidence. Take the next step towards freedom and opening your heart. Covey’s resource, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change, is a great place to start.

Reference – Covey, S. (1989). The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change. New York, USA: Simon & Schuster.

Control And Choice

“The chief task in life is simply this: to identify and separate matters so that I can say clearly to myself which are externals not under my control, and which have to do with the choices I actually control. Where do I look for good and evil? Not to uncontrollable externals, but within myself to the choices that are my own…”

(Epictetus, Discourses)

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