Let’s live in our Circle Of Influence as a way to be better prepared. Spice and I think that most preppers (and most people in general for that matter) waste most of their time and mental energy paying attention to the wrong things… politics, the latest news about __________ crisis, whether Russia or China or North Korea are going to blah blah blah blah, or whatever.
Folks, this is a trap, and we encourage everybody to recognize that it is, and to move past it.
Circle of Influence
In his seminal work about how certain people prosper while others don’t, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People“, Stephen R. Covey wrote: “Instead of reacting to or worrying about conditions over which they have little or no control, proactive people focus their time and energy on things they can control. The problems, challenges, and opportunities we face fall into two areas, Circle of Concern and Circle of Influence.”
Covey continues: “Proactive people focus their efforts on their Circle of Influence. They work on the things they can do something about: health, children, problems at work. Reactive people focus their efforts in the Circle of Concern–things over which they have little or no control: the national debt, terrorism, the weather. Gaining an awareness of the areas in which we expend our energies in is a giant step in becoming proactive.”
I was the proverbial news junkie years ago. I could tell you everything that was going on everywhere. I was tuned in, wired up and totally in the know.
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What did that knowledge get me? Squat. Absolutely nothing.
What was going on in the world was entirely outside my Circle of Influence and Circle of Concern. Whatever happened, happened no matter what I knew about it or what I thought about it.
I think most people would agree that the news media, at least on the national level, is just a bunch of lies anyway… served by people with agendas and political philosophies. Yet people admit this and still watch it religiously. Insanity.
There is absolutely nothing I can say here that will change the mind of somebody who isn’t open to it, so all I am going to ask is for everybody who reads this to start asking one question as you watch the news…. “Knowing the information in this story helps my family and I live a better life TODAY exactly how?”.
I’ll be you find that almost exclusively the answer will be “Well, it doesn’t. I have zero influence over that.”
Takeaway from this article
That the key takeaway I want to share with preppers in this article. I don’t ask that you do anything but stop and question “As I prepare to help my family succeed and prosper no matter what happens, how does knowing this information really help me?”
I think that question, if honestly answered, will surprise many.