On linkedin, Gary Kaufman posted a wonderful infographic about what is and is not in our control.
The graphic is pretty, but abstract and I think it’s valuable to take control of those things we can and should.
First and foremost, we can generally can take more control over what we give time and attention to by planning day, consciously selecting objectives for the meetings we attend, and choosing the media and social media we expose ourselves to.
Second, for many things, while we can control our actions, we cannot really control the result. I can control the number of people I ask, but not the number of people who say yes. I can control how faithfully I follow my exercise program, but not how quickly my body will show results. We can focus on our actions.
Third, we can select my strategies for interacting with the world. Think for a moment about K vs r selection. All to often, we just play the (k) numbers game — a hundred job applications, a hundred linked business development form letters, a hundred one-line responses to online dating programs without thinking about whether we might do a few carefully rather than a multitude carelessly.
These may sound very small, but in my own life and the lives of those of my advisees that have chosen to listen (their choices are, unfortunately, not within my control), implementing any one of these has generally shown incredibly rapid and broad improvements to our lives.
It’s December now, perhaps there’s room for some of this in your New Year’s Resolutions. Although most new years resolutions don’t last six week, the benefits of these can often be seen much sooner than that.
