So, What If I Have An External Locus Of Control?

• Avoid black-and-white thinking. You hardly ever have zero control over what happens. Open your mind to the gray areas in every situation.
• Write it out. Writing can be a great way to see your thoughts a little more objectively. If you can do a brain d...

• Change your mindset. While locus of control interventions haven’t been well studied, mindset interventions have, and there is a lot of overlap between the two. Learn about and cultivate a growth mindset to improve self-agency, motivation, and resilience.

Here are a few strategies to make sure your locus of control doesn’t get in your way:

• Practice accountability. When something happens—good or bad—step back and think through what part you played in it. Identify both the contributing external and internal forces.

Although studies generally suggest that having an internal locus of control is advantageous, there is no “correct” locus of control. Both extremes can present disadvantages.

So, wherever we fall on the spectrum, we may benefit from understanding our own ori...

1. Delegate. Those who lean more internal on the locus of control spectrum may find it difficult to delegate since they are accustomed to feeling in control. Stretch yourself to share tasks with others rather than do every little thing yourself.
2. Let it go.

• In my case, getting what I want has little or nothing to do with luck.
• It is impossible for me to believe that chance or luck plays an important role in my life.
• People are lonely because they don’t try to be friendly.
• In the long run, people get the respect they dese...

Although an internal locus of control has many benefits—motivation, health, success—there are still some pitfalls to watch out for.

People with an external locus of control believe that forces outside them—fate, luck, circumstances—are responsible for the events of their lives.

In contrast, those who perceive an internal locus of control believe that their personal decisions an...

Countless studies have demonstrated the importance of locus of control in determining numerous life outcomes.

For example, the perception that 10-year-olds have of their own agency has been shown to significantly predict their health outcomes in their thirties, including ob...

If we think finding a partner is up to fate, we may not feel the need to actively seek, meet, and get to know new people. But if we think we have control over it, we may try harder to put ourselves out there. In professional contexts, if we think a promotion is largely outside of our control, we ...

Our reaction to life events—specifically how we explain them—significantly affects our life outcomes.

Of course, there’s a continuum—nobody thinks their life is 100% in their control. But our orientation toward what we believe influences our life has a profound impa...

• Many times we might just as well decide what to do by flipping a coin.
• Many times I feel that I have little influence over the things that happen to me.
• There’s not much use in trying too hard to please people; if they like you, they like you.
• Unfortunately, an ind...

Julian Rotter’s full Locus of Control Scale is a 39-item questionnaire, available here:

https://arc.psych.wisc.edu/self-report/locus-of-control-scale-lcs/

But to get a quick sense of where we fall on the spectrum, we consider which group of ...

Psychologists generally agree that although our locus of control is largely established through experiences of reward and punishment when we are children, it is a flexible construct that can change throughout our life.

However, not much research has been done on targeted i...