Don’t let what you can’t control get in the way of what you can control

It never ceases to amaze me how much time people spend worrying about things that are out of their control. However, when it comes to taking care of things that are completely under their control, they tend to procrastinate. The average human being is easily distracted, especially by sensational things. In America we are obsessed with things of this nature.

How many of you have ever chosen not to attend a school party, event or meeting, etc.? Why do you need to work on a report that you must complete by the end of next week? While it’s certainly a commendable habit to put first things first, if you’re like most people, I suspect that you may remember a time or two (in a situation like this) where you ended up getting sidetracked by some news you heard and it never ended. working on the report or project at all.

Visualize the gains in our productivity as a nation, if many of us weren’t consumed by things like TMZ, ESPN, radio, and Entertainment Tonight-style shows. We treat rumors and breaking news on these media as emergency broadcast system warnings. How many times have you stopped doing what you are doing to follow a breaking story about a celebrity or sports personality? I suspect that the repeated retirements and layoffs of Brett Favre reduced our nation’s GDP by a point or two in the years in which they occurred.

What value do we get from being among the first to know when Lindsay Lohan is arrested again, or finding out what Indianapolis is going to do with Peyton Manning? However, people are obsessed with these things on a daily basis and to what end? The fact is, once these things happen (for better or for worse), we’ll hear it in a day or two at the most, and all the obsession did was get further behind the eight ball.

Whenever a big development / rumor hits the news about a team or player that I am associated with, my phone explodes with calls and texts from people I rarely hear from otherwise. What is going to happen will happen if they find out before or after it becomes official. Why waste time worrying about it when you can play with your kids or do something productive instead?

People who learn to turn off all these outside influences and do what they have to do tend to be the most successful in my experience. Ever wonder why so-called pressure situations don’t seem to bother some players, while other players fold underneath them? Those who learn to focus on what they are doing and to block out all the noise are the ones who are immune to pressure.

Why do soccer kickers miss so many routine kicks when the game is on? It’s because they are thinking about how much the kick means and all the implications (noise) rather than letting their body do what it normally does without needing to think at all. Show me a person who cares about things beyond their control and I will show you a person who underperforms in whatever they are doing.

So the next time you are heard telling someone else ‘that you don’t have enough time to _________ (fill in the blank)’, think about all the time you are wasting on things that are out of your control and use that time to do what you want. fill in the blank above with.

Website design By BotEap.com

Add a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *