Influence

How powerful it is to become aware of understanding the things that we can influence & change in our lives and working on them, and stopping wasting time on worrying and wishing about the things we don’t have influence over.  I heard Rosie Batty speak this month.  She recently lost her young son in tragic circumstances.  What is incredibly powerful to me is her attitude. Her focus is so much on what she can have influence on...not trying to wish for a different past.  She cannot change that.  What she has realised is that due to her position, she now feels able to have a broad influence on the topic of family violence and she is listened to by people in positions of influence like politicians.  She used words like: “I have nothing to lose”, “my voice is all I have”. She is one of the most proactive people in the face of adversity I have met.

Steven Covey in his book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, talks about a circle of influence.  Proactive people are aware of what is inside their ‘circle of influence’ and focus on them, instead of spending time on their ‘circle of concern’ which is full of “if only’s”!

When I look at my life objectively, there are places I have influence and places I wish I had more influence and there are places I have great concern for and know I have no influence in.  I am working at growing my circle of influence, and having ‘influence’ in the areas I can – which is mostly within myself.

I’m reminded of the AA mantra ..

‘God grant me the serenity 
to accept the things I cannot change; 
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.’

This has been around for such a long time and has had such a strong positive impact on many people’s lives. 

Do we need to have tragedy in our lives to become proactive about anything?  What does it take for us to believe that we actually have a wider circle of influence than we think?

Steven Covey wrote before the advent of blogging.  With www and all that comes with the cyber space that we inhabit, there is so much more opportunity to expand our circle beyond our physical world.  My actual physical friendship circle is probably around 100, however who I can have ‘influence’ on is way smaller. My cyber circle is larger, therefore so is the potential to influence on a wider scale.  Oprah Winfrey’s circle – just on face book alone is over 10million. Not to say all these people are part of her circle of influence, but there is that potential. It is possible today to build our influence exponentially. 

My hope for the future is that more and more people who are lead by their heart expand their circle of influence into the ‘power’ circles that make decisions of law, rules and regulation in our world and with their ‘influence’ helps the world evolve into its positive loving potential. 

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