Focus on What You Can Control - Deepstash
Focus on What You Can Control

Focus on What You Can Control

Stoics emphasize focusing on what you can control and accepting what you cannot. By internalizing goals, you make them about your efforts rather than outcomes. This acceptance leads to greater inner peace and reduced frustration.

  • Differentiate between controllable and uncontrollable aspects.
  • Set goals based on effort, not external outcomes.
  • Accepting limits fosters inner peace and reduces stress.

46

239 reads

CURATED FROM

IDEAS CURATED BY

mrparedes

High School Reading Teacher. Book lover. Sharing insights to inspire discovery. "Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body." – Joseph Addison

Explore the practical wisdom of Stoicism, an ancient philosophical school, and discover how it can enhance your daily life. Picture yourself in a long queue at the grocery store, which often triggers frustration. Imagine maintaining a calm and unruffled demeanor unaffected by such external circumstances. This is the essence of Stoicism, a philosophy that teaches us to preserve our peace of mind through moderation and self-control.

Similar ideas to Focus on What You Can Control

Focus On What You Can Control

Stoicism teaches us to identify what aspects of any situation we influence versus what we cannot change. This lets us focus our energy productively rather than frustration over the uncontrollable.

Before reacting to events, pause and reflect – can I do something about thi...

🧐 2. Focus on what you can control

Despite using affirmations and visualizations daily, my crippling self-doubt returned in tsunami waves whenever I faced a setback.

This was because I was deriving my self-worth from things I couldn’t control.

In general, you cannot control:

  • The past
  • Other people

Focus on What You Can Control

Worrying about the result is a distraction from what you really should be thinking about: how you can respond, and what happens next.

Your work leaves your hands at some point and what happens next is almost always out of your control. People either like your work of art or they don’t. 

Read & Learn

20x Faster

without
deepstash

with
deepstash

with

deepstash

Personalized microlearning

100+ Learning Journeys

Access to 200,000+ ideas

Access to the mobile app

Unlimited idea saving

Unlimited history

Unlimited listening to ideas

Downloading & offline access

Supercharge your mind with one idea per day

Enter your email and spend 1 minute every day to learn something new.

Email

I agree to receive email updates