When you are a leader, everyday brings a multitude of problems, challenges, and opportunities. Each comes from a variety of sources with different people involved. As you face the problems, challenges, and opportunities, think about how to control life. You must realize what is within your control and what is not. As a leader, it is very easy to want to control life completely to the point that you forget that you can’t control certain things. When you try to control the uncontrollable it only leads to stress, frustration, burnout, and disappointment. As a leader, you must truly think about and understand how to control life.
Do You Understand How To Control Life?
So, when do you control life and when does someone else control life? This question is very important when approaching each day. You should ask this question when you set your priorities and determine how to spend your time and money. It is very easy to get caught up trying to control things outside your control, but that creates unneeded stress.
When deciding how to control life, you must grasp the controlled and let go of the uncontrollable. How can you grasp the controlled? How can you let go of the uncontrollable? To control life you must understand what is controllable and what is not.
Grasp the controlled
When something within your control is brought to your attention, you must identify its importance and urgency. From there, prioritize the new item amongst the other things you have to do. The act of putting it on a priority list will allow you to put it out of your mind until it gets to the top of the list. When the item comes up, identify the depth and breadth of challenge or problem and identify the resources you will need.
If you can’t solve the issue in the moment, put together action items and a time line for their completion. Put them on your calendar so that you don’t forget about them while not having to keep them in your immediate memory. If the issue requires a lot of effort, put together an action plan and begin working to get it done. As you take this approach, you will begin controlling the controllable and learn how to control life.
Let go of the uncontrollable
In addition to the controllable items, there will also be challenges and concerns brought to you that are outside your control. For instance, you may have an employee that shows up late everyday. In that situation, you can tell them to show up on time and they can then choose to be obedient or not. If they are not obedient, it is outside your control once your tell them what to do.
Your employees have their own desires, so all you can do is your very best to get them in line with your desires. If they don’t listen, that is outside your control and you should not lose sleep over it. If you let something like that bother you, you will have a lot of undue stress. It can eventually lead to health problems. If you are in a position to discipline them for their actions, you can move that into the sphere of what is in your control and begin acting on it.
Whenever something is brought to your attention, you should always identify what is within your control and what is not if you are to learn how to control life. Keep everything in perspective so you don’t waste your time worrying about things outside your control. If you can do that effectively, you will have a much happier life and things will go better for you.
What challenges have you faced because you worried too much about what was outside your control? How do you eliminate the uncontrollable from your life? Why is it important to you to identify the controllable and uncontrollable in your life? Please share your thoughts and comments in the comments section below!
Your example of the uncontrollably late employee is a great one. I presume that in some circumstances that you may have to take some action — note it on reviews or take even harsher disciplinary measures like a write-up if needed. But in the end, that’s all you can do — and you’ll always know that this employee is not a great candidate for promotion, special projects, etc. (and can become a layoff target, which you may or may not have to tell the person).
Welcome Neil! Thank you for your comment. I couldn’t agree with you more that when you are the leader you must take action on things that are within your control like in the case of the late employee. You can terminate or hold back rewards as you mentioned. The important thing is to focus on what is within your control and deal with that. You must not worry about the factors outside your control. Thanks again!
Very enlivening..motivating and simple…regards.