Leading Libraries Series: Leading for Resilience

Mental Resilience

Managing your attention: Staying within your zone of influence

In the book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen R. Covey talked about the concept of Circle of Concern and Circle of Influence.

Often the zone of concern is much bigger than the things we can control or influence. If our zone of concern is much bigger than our zone of influence or zone of control, we will spend a lot of time worrying about things we cannot do anything about. This is the single biggest stressor that most people have.

Resilient people spend less time thinking about issues which they cannot control and more time acting on issues that they can influence or control.

Getting effective - understanding your attention zones

One of the key ways to ensure that you reduce unhealthy stress to a minimum is to become very aware of how you use your attention. Stephen Covey, author of the famous ‘Seven Habits of Highly Successful People’ (which we strongly recommend!), created a well-known model to help us focus on our ‘Zone of Influence’ and stop worrying about things we can’t do anything about ('the Zone of Concern’). One of the most effective ways of driving yourself into stress and overwhelm is to keep enlarging your ‘Zone of Concern’ without addressing any of the issues you can actually control.

People who are identified as resilient develop a sense of ‘efficacy’ and effectiveness in the world. One of the ways they do this is by focussing their actions and attention on things they can actually do something about – they are proactive rather than reactive.

Pause for reflection: Categorising and acting on current issues

Make a list of all of the worries and problems you have spent time and attention on over the last week. Be comprehensive, even if the items feel a bit ridiculous! Now categorise each issue into one of the following categories:

1. Items which you are concerned about but have no control over
2. Items which you could influence more effectively if you put your attention on to them (Circle of Influence)
3. Items which are actually under your direct control (Circle of Control)

Notice which list is the longest!

Finally, select one item from each of the Circle of Influence and the Circle of Control. Identify one small action which you could take this week under each heading. Notice how you feel once you have identified and completed each action.

Continue to: Detaching from negative thinking