Circles of Control, Influence & Concern

The “circle of control” describes the areas of life where we have direct control versus those we don’t.
Essentially, it teaches you to focus on the things that you can actually do something about to increase your resilience, productivity, and success.
 
Focusing on your circle of control helps reduce anxiety and stress by encouraging you to invest energy only in the areas where you can make a tangible difference.

1. Circle of Control
This encompasses those circumstances/issues/problems that we have direct control over. Invest your time, energy & emotions here.

2. Circle of Influence
This encompasses those circumstances/issues/problems that we have indirect control over.
 
3. Circle of Concern
This is the outermost circle and it shows things we often worry about but cannot control no matter what we do. Focusing on them can make a person feel powerless.

Instructions

This activity can be done individually or as a group. You can focus on all aspects of your life, or on one specific area (e.g. your business).
 
✅1.     Print out the “Circles of Control” poster.
✅2.     On small sticky notes, or pieces of paper, write down all the circumstances/issues/problems that are concerning you and put them in the Circle of Concern circle.

At this stage you may have a lot of stress and anxiety over the things you’ve written down and may feel you don’t have any control over them.
 
✅3.     Look at all the things you’ve written down and decide which things you can actively control. Move all the sticky notes with the things that you can actively control from the outer, big Circle of Concern into the small Circle of Control.

At this point, you may think that there aren’t many items that you can actively control. Maybe that’s true – you can’t control them, so ask yourself, “Can I influence them?”

✅4.     Think about ways you might be able to influence the things that are still in your Circle of Concern.

E.g. could you develop a better relationship with the person outside of the team who’s making impossible demands and get to the root cause of their behavior?
 
Go through all the notes that are still in your Circle of Concern and try to move them into the Circle of Influence.
 
As you explore these further, and think about them differently, you might find that some of the concerns can go straight into the Circle of Control.
 
✅5.     When you have worked with the sticky notes until you can’t move anything anymore, write the circumstances/issues/problems onto the actual poster and put the poster up in a place where you can easily see it every day.

(The inside of a cupboard door that you open every day is a useful place to put your poster if you don’t want anyone else to see it).
 
✅6.     Your poster will then be a daily reminder of just how much you can control and where you need to focus your time and energy.