CONTROLLING WHAT YOU CAN CONTROL
Last week, I wrote about some ideas for making 2025 a more resilient year for all of us. One of those ideas was the concept of “controlling what you can control” and how mastering that process can greatly increase your resilience. While they don’t have the same meaning, when I think of resilience, I tend to think of willpower as well. One is the ability to deal with difficult situations and bounce back, and the other is the ability to restrain oneself in any given situation. But if you take a closer look, they both have a similar thread running through them: energy allocation. If you allocate your energy more efficiently, you can increase both your resilience and your willpower. Conversely, if you don’t devote energy and attention to the correct areas, your resilience and willpower will suffer. Let’s look at an example of how energy allocation plays into “controlling what you can control” when it comes to training.
Imagine you’re getting your clothes ready for a run the night before. As you’re about to get out what you need, you pull up the weather app and see that there is a 70% chance of rain. You don’t like running in the rain, plus you were getting up early and it will be dark outside. It’s also winter, so the rain, colder temperatures and the dark are now a three-headed monster trying to derail your running plans for the next day. You stress over the picture you’ve created in your head and go to bed dreading what awaits you the next morning. The two likeliest outcomes of this scenario are that you either a.) snooze the alarm and choose the comfort of your warm bed over the cold rain or b.) you end up running with a negative mindset and a dreadful attitude.
In this all too real example that may hit close to home for some of us, you’ve devoted all your energy to things that aren’t going to change because you’re stressing over them! You’re never going to show up as your most resilient self if you devote unnecessary attention to things you can’t influence. All that tends to happen is that you shift to a negative mentality because you feel hopeless.
I would like to propose an alternative that I’ve found extremely helpful. When you start to feel yourself focusing energy on factors outside of your control, shift your energy allocation by making a list of the things you can control. In our example above, here are some things that might be within your control: gathering proper clothes to prepare for cold and rainy weather; getting into a positive “I can handle anything” mindset, getting the coffee brewed extra early to have a warm, caffeinated beverage before the run; or even setting up an alternative plan like going to the gym and running on the treadmill if you really don’t want to run in the bad weather. All these options shift away from a negative mindset and put the control back in your hands. And with the control in your hands and a positive mindset, what can’t you accomplish? After all, there’s “only” a 70% chance of rain. That means there’s a 30% chance it won’t even rain at all. Imagine having a 30% chance of getting selected in the Western States lottery- would you take those odds? The point is, sometimes we create stress over things that haven’t yet materialized, worrying about a potential future instead of focusing on what we can do right now. And right now, we can do a lot more than we think to set ourselves up for success!
