The current world is one where we are constantly overloaded with information and choices. As each year passes, we are faced with an eternally increasing amount of information, and decisions that we are confronted with. Within this tangled web of connections and impressions are the areas where we should focus, and the decisions that we should make.
Unfortunately, finding this area of focus and discovering these areas of focus is surprisingly difficult for most of us to accomplish. The reason for this is because we each have two circles that we live our lives within. The first is a circle of importance, and the second is a circle of control.
The Circle of Importance
Within the world at large, and within our personal life, there are items of great and small importance. The circle of importance spans from the things that are important to our personal, professional and financial lives to the events of international politics and global finance. This allows us to devote our attention to learning about the things that appear to be the most important events in the nation and in the world. Things such as critical elections and political summits frequently command our attention due to the great importance of what can result from the decisions that are made.
The advent of mass media has created an endless stream of information about the most impactful events in our community, across the nation, and around the world. This makes it easy for us to learn much about what is happening … too easy. When all the world’s events and information is constantly at our fingertips, it is all too easy for us to become “information junkies” who consistently follow the news of the day, and devote all of our attention to those events.
There are many people who spend almost every waking moment of their life perpetually focused on the world’s political news. From the perspective of being a responsible citizen, it is good to be aware of what is happening in the world around us. However, if we spend all of our attention focused on the circle of geopolitical importance, it leaves little time left for focus in other areas.
The Circle of Control
On the other side of our conscious is the circle of control. This is the area of our life where we can exert influence over what happens. Typically, this circle is much closer to us, since it is much easier to control the actions and events that are very near ourselves. When we feel that the world around is spinning out of control, it can feel natural to exert more influence on the parts of our lives that we can control.
In many cases, this desire manifests itself as a narrow focus on ensuring that all of the things in our personal circle align according to a strict regimen. In some cases, the desire to control our life causes us to extensively focus on minor details that are of minimal importance while other items of much greater impact to our personal, professional, and financial lives are ignored.
Our Area of Focus
The parts of our life that deserve the most intense focus are at the intersection of these two circles. Instead of focusing exclusively on the just the areas that appear the most important or just the areas we control, we should proactively seek the areas of our life that are important, and that we are able to control. Deeper analysis is likely to reveal that this intersection is smaller than most of us would like to imagine.
The reason for this apparent paradox is because much of the important things we pay attention to are beyond our control, and many of the things we are able to control are not necessarily important. What each of us must find a way to do is determine where these circles intersect in our own life. One of the ways that many of us can accomplish this feat is by finding the inflection points in our personal, professional, and financial life where we can exert influence.
One particular area where nearly everybody can benefit is from studying and decisively pursuing prudent investments. The world is quickly becoming a place where we cannot depend on the promises of our government or company pensions. By living our life at the intersection of importance of control, we can steadily improve our personal and financial situation.
Action Item: Focus on the areas of your life where the circles of importance and control intersect. Use this focus to create a more prosperous and productive life for both yourself and the people you care about.
The Jason Hartman Team
