Circle of Influence...Control What You Control

If you have read Steven Covey’s 7 Habits book, then you know about the circle of influence and you know about the circle of concern.  In a short snippet, the circle of influence are those things that you have direct control over.  In the book it would be things like your clients, your family, your schedule, etc.  The circle of concern are those things that we find ourselves worrying about but cannot control.  From a business standpoint these are things like, the client who might use your business, the weather…anything that we have no direct control over.

I want to take a minute and have you apply these same principles to your training.  I want you to stop focusing all your time and energy on the things that pop up in your circle of concern and focus more on your circle of influence.

These items fall into the category of circle of concern:

  1. Everyone else’s range of motion

  2. Everyone else’s time and rep count

  3. The weight on your neighbors bar

  4. The weather

  5. The actual workout

  6. How your coach deals with all of the above

You cannot affect these and you cannot change these items.  And more importantly focusing on them helps you in no shape, form or fashion.  If you spend all your time worrying about these things, then you neglect to get better in the areas that you need to get better in.  The areas that you directly influence…the areas we call the circle of influence.  These are:

  1. Whether or not you show up daily

  2. Your nutrition and sleep

  3. Your range of motion

  4. The weight on your bar

  5. Your mindset and attitude

  6. How you and your coach approach your workout

  7. How you handle adversity

  8. Your effort

The neat thing about focusing on the things that we can control, is it has a carry over effect into the things that we cannot control.  If we are consistently showing up, pushing ourselves, moving correctly, eating right and sleeping well.  Others want those results and we have the opportunity to share that with them.  We continue in our path of controlling what we can.  Set the bar high for yourself and push yourself constantly.  All the coaches know that CrossFit thrives on intensity, but that intensity comes from within…by pushing yourself to be better…not worrying about the person on the platform next to you.

See everyone at the lab!

BodyLab