As a young elite gymnast (yep that’s me!), the advice my coach always gave me was “concentrate on the things that you can control and forget everything else”.
It was very wise advice.
In sport, in life, in work, in business, there are many situations that occur which are completely out of your control. There is only a limited amount of time, effort and energy that you have to invest in whatever it is that you are doing. Wasting any of it on things you cannot control achieves nothing except increasing your own frustration, anger and stress.
· You can’t control how other people think.
· You can’t control your competition.
· You can’t control the weather.
· You can’t control how someone else reacts to an issue.
· You can’t control the financial climate.
· You can’t control how another person values your product or service.
· You can’t control many aspects of the environment you have to work in.
In every situation you have a choice – you can decide to focus on what you have the ability to do or you can allow external situations that you have no control over to bring you down.
“Incredible change happens in your life when you decide to take control of what you do have power over instead of craving control over what you don’t.”
― Steve Maraboli