Being an entrepreneur or small business owner is difficult in many ways, especially when there is a lot of disruption and change. There always seems to be a limitless amount of things you could be concentrating on, spending time on, doing, or delegating.

The sheer amount of factors affecting your business and life can be overwhelming for some people, and when many of those factors appear to be beyond your control, the temptation to wallow increases.

According to strategic consultant and speaker Brett Gajda, “you leave the office, go to a safe place, and let it all out. But it’s not productive to just complain if your intention is to actually change something.”

Entrepreneurs require a framework for sorting through various variables and choosing where to focus attention in order to avoid analysis paralysis. Gajda offered one such framework from Stephen R. Covey’s book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People on the “Get A Grip” edition of his podcast, Where There’s Smoke. Covey categorises the things we all experience as falling into one of two circles: The Circle of Concern or The Circle of Influence.

The majority of issues that affect you globally are included in the Circle of Concern. The national economy, the market, regulations, and almost 7.125 billion additional people are common elements in this infinite circle, according to Gajda. The unexpected events that can abruptly alter your plans, such as the weather, traffic, natural disasters, or an unexpected health diagnosis, are also included in the Circle of Concern.

The Circle of Concern is located inside the considerably smaller Circle of Influence. This is the overlapping collection of factors that affect you and those that you can influence or control to some extent. The only thing you can truly control, according to Gajda, are your own actions, reactions, beliefs, attitudes, priorities, decisions, and behaviours.

As a result, the majority of what we encounter as business owners—and simply as people—fits into The Circle of Concern, which can be worrying in and of itself.

There may not be anything more aggravating than a circumstance in which your amount of control is limited yet the potential consequences of losing control could be significant, according to Gajda. It may therefore be tempting to concentrate much of our attention on the many issues within the Circle of Concern. Many business owners fall victim to this trap.

One mistake people make when dealing with problems is to view them through a lens of number rather than a lens of quality, according to Gajda. Because the circle of interest is so vast, they tend to concentrate on it. How can we discuss anything else?

You miss out on chances to actually improve your circumstances, your business, and your life when you spend your valuable time and energy concentrating on those things you cannot change.

“A proactive person looks at issues through a lens of quality, not quantity,” claims Gajda. They realise that concentrating their efforts on the things they can control is the only way they can be truly proactive.

The things inside the Circle of Influence may at first just make up 1% of a challenge or issue we confront, but as you take charge and act, that 1% increases.

“Once you change that one percent, it actually changes the entire landscape of the situation,” claims Gajda. Then, occasionally, you can broaden your Circle of Influence and gain access to a portion of the issue that was previously in your Circle of Concern from that new position or viewpoint.

You may have the biggest impact on your business and your life by concentrating on and making an effort towards the things you can influence and control. Even while these actions might seem insignificant in the larger scheme of things, taking action generates momentum and growth in a snowball effect, enables you to widen your circle of influence, and opens doors for future advancement.