Two overlapping circles, one that says "things that matter" and one that says "things you can control". The area where they overlap is colored in and labeled as "what you should focus on"

Folks, in life you must pick your battles; allocate your time and energy in ways that are most effective and efficient. We are given but one precious life and it behooves us to spend the coin of time well and not fritter away the all too fleeting days of our lives. To me, this means being both productive and purposeful (It is not enough to be busy, ants are busy. -Thoreau).

I think of it as operating from the ‘Highest Leverage Point’, continually asking myself, given my goals and values, what is the most impactful thing I could be doing? Learning to focus on the most important (often not the loudest thing around us) involves another, related skill: learning to release the unimportant, disciplining ourselves to not major in minor things, to set aside the seemingly urgent but not important.

I’m fond of the phrase “Not my Monkeys, not my Circus” as a humorous way to remind myself to concentrate my energies on my Circle of Influence/Control which is always smaller than my Circle of Concern. Furthermore, the most dramatic is rarely the most consequential; the wise know how to sort the wheat from the chaff, the noise from the signal.

Closing Quotes:

“Wherever you are, that’s your stage, your circle of influence. That’s your talk show, that’s where your power lies…” – Oprah Winfrey

“Life will have less drama if you keep your circle small. You don’t have to be friends with anyone. Pick people who will influence you. Pick the people who share the same interests and radiate the positivity that you have.” – Dembe Michael

“Proactive people focus their efforts in the Circle of Influence. They work on the things they can do something about. The nature of their energy is positive, enlarging and magnifying, causing their Circle of Influence to increase.” – Stephen Covey, 1932-2012

“To increase your productivity, focus relentlessly on your circle of influence. Spend all your time on what you can make a difference to, even if in the beginning it looks small. Avoid the circle of concern like the plague.” – Chandramouli Venkatesan, ‘Catalyst: Ultimate Strategies on how to Win at Work and in Life’

As always, I share what I most want and need to learn. – Nathan S. Collier