Circle of Influence, Circle of Concern

When building an online business, there’s a diagram in Steven Covey’s book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, that you should keep in mind.

It looks like this:

The circles represent the two areas where you can focus your time and energy.

• Within the Circle of Concern is everything that might affect you and your business.

• Within the Circle of Influence are things you can actually control.

If you’re smart, you’ll spend the majority of your time and energy within the smaller circle, your Circle of Influence.

As Covey writes in the book (emphasis mine):

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.

Covey continues:

Reactive people, on the other hand, focus their efforts in the Circle of Concern. They focus on the weakness of other people, the problems in the environment, and circumstances over which they have no control.

Their focus results in blaming and accusing attitudes, reactive language, and increased feelings of victimization. The negative energy generated by that focus, combined with neglect in areas they could do something about, causes their Circle of Influence to shrink.

Circle of Influence, Circle of Concern: Online Business Example

Say you’ve just started a freelance web design business.

The following would be within your Circle of Influence…

• Finding your first clients.
• Signing up for Upwork and creating a killer profile.
• Improving your web design skills.

And the following would be beyond your Circle of Influence, in your Circle of Concern…

• The latest economic crisis.
• Cheap freelancers in India and the Philippines.
• Artificial intelligence.

A smart freelancer would spend most of her time and energy on that first list (and similar), and little-to-no time on the second.

Where do you spend most of your time and energy?

Take a quick inventory.

• Are you spending most of your time and energy worrying about things you can’t control?

If so, your circle of influence is likely to shrink and your business will suffer.

• Are you spending most of your time and energy working on things you can actually do something about?

If so, great.

That kind of proactive approach will greatly increase your chances of online business success.

Do you want to become more effective?

If so, I highly recommend that you grab a copy of The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People.

It truly is one of the best books ever written for anyone seeking to operate at the highest level personally and professionally.