Circle of Influence / Circle of Concern

How we ‘hold’ the world—the story we tell ourselves about what is going on is just as important as what is ‘objectively’ happening. Sometimes simple ideas can point us in new directions that help us move through the world with more ease, even when the situation itself has not changed. In Buddhism we call these helpful ideas upaya or ‘skillful means. And in this time of escalating crisis, our thinking—how we work with and respond to the overload of information and anxiety is of real consequence—and is perhaps where we have the most potential to make a difference in our lives and in the world.

Many of us have already discovered that spending the day obsessively tracking the latest last-minute news (usually the same as it was two hours ago) of the spread of Covid-19 on-line or on TV is not a helpful or very productive thing to do. While it is important to stay informed about our constantly changing health situation, we also have to find ways to take care of ourselves so that we can continue to be of use to ourselves and to others.

One upaya that may be a helpful comes from Stephen Covey’s classic self-help book: THE 7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE. I read this book in the early ‘90’s shortly after it was published and have found several of his ideas to be surprisingly durable and useful over many years. The idea that has arisen for me this morning is his conception of Circle of Influence/Circle of Concern. Covey illustrated the relationship between these two realms with an egg-like diagram— a larger circle (the white) which contains a smaller circle (the yolk) within.

The larger circle (the white) represents your circle of concern—all the things you care about in your life and in the world. This ranges from what shirt you’re going to wear today and whether you will go to the grocery store this afternoon to what the weather is outside and what is happening with Covid-19 virus regulations in the Bay Area.

Your circle of influence is the smaller circle within the larger one. This represents everything you are concerned about and that you can actually do something about. In the above example, choosing what you’ll wear today and making the decision about the trip to the grocery store are things within your capacity to do something about – these are in your immediate circle of influence. But the temperature outside and the ‘shelter in place’ orders in San Francisco are not things you can influence right now.

Covey’s simple observation is that whichever part of the diagram we spend time in, grows larger. When we spend time reading and reading and obsessively thinking about things we can’t influence, we feel more overwhelmed and less able to act. In this, the inner circle of influence seems to shrink like the pupil of the eye when exposed to strong light. When we spend time in areas where we have some influence, we find our sense of sense of well-being and our capacity to act effectively increases—the inner circle of influence grows larger and larger.

My suggestion for today is that we simply notice which sphere—circle of concern or circle of influence—we are residing in and noticing what the impact is. Of course we all need to stay connected to news and information that will help us stay safe and current as things continue to change. But while we do that, can we also stay alive and awake to our endless human capacity to make a difference right where we are?