Although I (hope) possess more than four pieces of wisdom worth sharing, we have come to our fourth and final post in this series.  Of all the ideas that I have shared over the last month, this is probably the one that presents the most frequent struggle for me, and for most people that I know.

So much of what we have to deal with on a daily basis is outside of our control.  We cannot control the market, our competitors, our customers, our colleagues, the world at large.  The unfortunate part is that our lives are so regularly impacted by things beyond our control.

When things go our way, it is really easy to start to think that we are the smartest person in the room.  However, often times a lot of what happens is beyond our control and we want to make sure that we don’t start to “believe our own press” more than we should.  Now I am not suggesting that we shouldn’t appreciate the good things that we do cause to happen and have control over.  I am just saying, you want to “keep it real” about how much control you did have on an outcome.

When things don’t go your way, the blame game can start and instead of focusing on trying to fix the problem or situation, the path of least resistance is to complain and use terms like “it’s not fair” or “it’s not my fault”.  Worse is when you try to change things that you cannot control or you waste effort “running into the brick wall” to no avail.  A lot of energy, time and effort can be wasted complaining about things instead of trying to adapt and make the best of the new situation.

This doesn’t make the situation suck any less.  When the “wheels come off” outside of our control, it is no easier to deal with.  All I am suggesting is that it can be very freeing to believe that there is nothing you could have done to change it. Wasting time moaning about it only takes away from your focus and attention to plotting a path back towards success.

When you find yourself facing down a bad situation, all I am suggesting is you look for what you do/could have controlled and try to learn your lessons, and at the same time don’t waste time or effort on trying to solve for things that have nothing to do with any actions that you can take.

A friend of mine was working for a company whose business was almost 100% dependent on a specific government funding policy.  The company was growing gangbusters until one day the government changed the funding formula and their entire stream of revenue disappeared overnight.  It was devastating.  The business literally closed up shop within a matter of days or a couple of weeks.  There is nothing that he could have done to change the outcome.  My friend was totally shocked but he didn’t get stuck wallowing about the situation, he was able to put it behind him and go out and find another opportunity.

Now, the final thing I will say is that you can try to create a life for yourself where the number of things outside of your control are as limited as possible, which I would recommend.  However, no matter what business you are in, there are many things that can have an impact (good or bad) on your business that are just going to happen no matter what you do.

My recommendation is that it is best to understand what they are, minimize the risk as best you can and don’t waste too much time patting yourself on the back when they happen and things go well, and don’t beat yourself up if they go wrong.