How much control do we have over our existance?

Between stimulus and response, there resides the « Last of Human Freedoms ».

The degree to which you hold your grip onto the way you respond to a stimulus is going to determine, for better or for worse, the way you will respond to any similar stimulus anytime soon.

Realizing some “hardcore truths” might make you fall into some form of hopeless nihilism regarding your circle of concerns and the margin of control you have over many components in your environment.
It is true, it is evident and obvious it may seem that you have little to no control over the things that determine the state of your existence.

However, you are focusing on a completely irrelevant circle here. As the only circle you need to worry about right now, is what Stephen Covey calls the “Circle of Influence”.

You probably know the way it goes in our universe; Energy in. Work out. So energy is scarce and limited. Thus raises the necessitous strategy of optimizing its management.

To this day, I often take a look around me to notice nothing but the great majority of people around me still directing their physical and mental energy into trying to alter what they have little or no control over (i.e. their Circle of Concern).

If you are not getting new clients, deal with your product because therein lies all of the margin of control you have. Change the product, alter the product, play with the product and come up with a new product if necessary, but don’t drain too much of your energy reserves trying to discover a magic wand that supposedly will make you “the master of your destiny…”.

Now, here is some good news for you: you Circle of Influence is contained within your Circle of Concerns, and guess what? The more grip/control you take and the more actions you commit within the former circle will make it expand its horizons, therefore shrinking the breadth of the things that you have no control over in your life; Thus hitting multiple birds with a single stone.

Sooner or later, you will start realizing that within even the most deterministic sets of environments, there lies some freedom and it is up to you to unlock it. It is there. It is real. It is for you.

The world is yours for the taking.