Focus your energy on what you can control

How do you respond when faced with an obstacle?

What do you do when your application is rejected? When someone steals your idea? Or when you’ve been handed an assignment with an impossible deadline?

These days, it’s become acceptable—even fashionable—to play the victim. We like to point fingers, pass the buck, complain, and expend our energy making sure that everyone knows how angry we are about the situation.

I think it’s important to remember that being wronged, or even starting from a place of disadvantage isn’t unfair—it’s universal.

It’s the natural state of human affairs that there always have been, and will continue to be, obstacles in our path.

Each one will be different. Both in magnitude and scope. Some will be personal, and others will envelope our communities.

But no matter the obstacle, an effective response remains the same: Focus your energy on changing the things within your control.

This is how you can make a difference.

The road to better gets shorter when you start with the right perspective.

In his book, The Obstacle Is The Way, author Ryan Holiday writes:

Focusing exclusively on what is in our power magnifies and enhances our power. But every ounce of energy directed at things we can’t actually influence is wasted—self-indulgent and self-destructive. So much power—ours, and other people’s—is frittered away in this manner.

Ryan Holiday

Regardless of what obstacle you’re facing, you always have the power to choose:

• Your emotions
• Your attitude
• Your decisions 

When you remain focused on the things within your circle of influence, obstacles transform into opportunities.

You find creative solutions that didn’t seem possible before. You pivot and risk trying something new. You iterate and improve until you’ve done your best work yet.

You can resolve to make the most of your current situation and fight for better. Or you can waste time and energy trying to change the injustices of yesterday.

The choice is up to you.