Even though he was born a slave about A.D. 55, the venerable philosopher and teacher Epictetus left guiding principles that can set us free to be our own hero. Epictetus taught that it is best to get to work on what we can control and let the uncontrollable go. We can believe him when he said, "Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens."
Over the years I have observed that for most people their life is a mix bag of success. Some of their actions have favorable results. Other actions have unfavorable outcomes. It makes you wonder if they ever thought to increase their chances of success they should do more of what is working and do less of what isn’t.
Given six activities and two of them are producing desired results and four are not. Doesn’t it make sense to drop the losing activities, and focus on the two that are producing results thus increasing your productivity?
Much of success is attributable to time spent working on projects that we have some control over. The more control we have, the better the chance of success. The less control we have the less chance of success. In today's competitive world failure is not an option. Therefore, people who strive for success, seek to control, organize and have power over the critical variables of any undertaking.
A lot of people are surprised to discover that by asking a few focused questions at the start of a project, they are better able to control the outcome. By knowing the elements they can control, the, avoid becoming a project victim. A victim can be described as an individual who allows the uncontrollable to dictate his or her actions. It is paradoxical but, the things that are uncontrollable are the very things that control the victim's life.
Often we can help ourselves be more productive and improve our chance of success by answering a few pointed questions about a project we want to undertake. Here are five questions that lead to increased chance of success:
Question 1. What activities do you have control over and what activities are uncontrollable? List each activity under its correct heading and then ask and answer questions two through five.
Question 2. For activities listed under "uncontrollable", ask why is it not controllable? Are there ways to adjust or change the activity to make it controllable?
Question 3. Is there an alternative controllable action that provides equal results? If so choose it.
Question 4. Can you enlist help to make the uncontrollable, controllable? Look at co-workers, friends, mentors, supervisors, teachers, and non-competitive organizations,
Question 5. Can you change or adjust your objective to eliminate or at least lessen the uncontrollables? I recall seeing a motivational poster featuring this enlightening
thought: "We can't change the wind but we can adjust the sails."
Once you have your final list of controllable and uncontrollable actions, you can move swiftly to engage in the project or to search for an alternative.
People are seldom able to control all the situations they find themselves in. The parameters and circumstances are seldom 100 percent favorable. In fact a 100 percent controllable environment is probably an illusion. Don't deceive yourself, good things don't happen because the planets are perfectly aligned. They happen because of a person's willingness to work toward accomplishing their goal in spite of obstacles and less than ideal resources.
In the end, you must focus and work on the things you control. Always look for ways of increasing your odds of success. Realize you must accept personal responsibility for the outcome. And you do not want to fail. A winner controls the outcome by controlling the activities needed to win.
Three Point Success Summation
HOG THOUGHT: To achieve success, we often must deal with uncontrollables in a way that makes them controllable. This means that you may have to adjust or change an activity, look for alternatives that provide equal results, enlist help to make the uncontrollable, controllable or adjust the objective to eliminate or lessen the influence of the uncontrollable. Before you bargain for help with an uncontrollable, always be able to accept what you are willing to exchange or give up to obtain control.
HOG QUOTE: “The reason most major goals are not achieved is that we spend our time doing second things first.” —Robert J. McKain
HOG ACTION: Determine what needs to be done and begin working on priority activities you control.
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