Transformational Leadership Blog

Stephen Covey, in his bestselling book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, he talked about the Circle of Concern. This circle contains the things that people get worried about yet they don’t have direct control over these things! Focusing on the circle of concern is counterproductive! Why? Because you cannot really control it. Why bother?

In order for you to become more effective, you need to minimize your circle of concern! I’ve been thinking about my own circle of concern and how I can minimize them. I’ve listed twelve things that belong to my circle of concern, which I need to stop worrying about.

1. The weather. Even if I do some rain ritual or dance, I can’t make the rain fall at my own whim!

2. World peace! This isn’t a Ms. Universe pageant where I pray for world peace and all the wars going on. Sure, it’s nice to know about those conspiracy theories but I can’t really do anything about them right now.

3. What other people think of me. As much as I want everybody to think that I’m the world’s handsomest guy, they probably have too much going on in their minds to even pay attention to me. Or my face for that matter.

4. My online presence and this blog, too! I can optimize my blog for all its worth. Write one kickass article after another and still I will not be sure what other people will think about it. So instead of worrying about their reaction, I should probably focus on what I can do to make my online presence as amazing as possible.

5. Global warming. The Arctic Circle is melting. There’s drought in the Philippines. The world is changing. Probably, the world is ending, too! Refer to number 1 above.

6. Rising price of fuel. The only thing I can do is to travel less. Thankfully, my work allows me to work at home! I don’t actually have to go out as much as I used to. And I probably won’t buy a car anytime soon.

7. Overpopulation. There are about 90 million Filipinos in the crowded islands of the Philippines. But even if I didn’t have a child, that would not solve the problem.

8. My retirement. That will be a few years from now. While I want to retire early and enjoy the world, I won’t probably do that. So it’s great not to worry about that.

9. The next leaders of our country. It’s election fever in the Philippines! We will be choosing the next leaders. Who will it be? What if they become corrupt? What if they lead the country back to the dark ages? Hmm… can’t do much about that can I?

10. The economy. Nuff said!

11. Crime in the neighborhood. Except from occasional exchanges of cuss words, there hasn’t been any crime in my neighborhood.

12. Traffic accident. I have a friend who’s afraid she will be die of a traffic accident. So far, she hasn’t. But interestingly, she’s been hit by a motorcycle and a jeepney. Probably the Law of Attraction at work.

Hmmm… I’m reminded that 45% of things people worry about never happens. And there’s this interesting post from Armen who advised people to move ice cubes instead of glaciers!

Glaciers are like your Circle of Concern—you can’t do much about it! So, you better start doing something with your Circle of Influence, the ice cubes!

No related posts.