3 min read.
This 👆 is my favourite Stoic philosophy mental model for getting more shit down using less energy!
It’s over 2000 years old.
It is used by high performers in top-tier professional sports, entrepreneurship and creativity
👉 In Stoic philosophy, it’s called “the dichotomy of control”
👉 In sports psychology, it’s called “controlling the controllables”
It’s fucking awesome.
It increases your results by using less energy
It will help you avoid creative burnout
It is Pareto’s Principle ( focus on the 20% that will give you 80% of the results)
It’s super simple ( see video for a deeper dive into how to use it in creativity and productivity)
Next time you face a situation ask yourself this
➡️ Can I solve the problem?
➡️ Can I control this situation?
If the answer is “no.”
Chill the fuck out!
No amount of overthinking will solve a problem you have no control over.
It’s unsolvable.
So let it go.
If the answer is “yes.”
Then put all your energy into solving it.
We’re control freaks. We want to control everything.
But paradoxically we control very little.
We can only control:
➡️ Our attitude
➡️ Our effort
➡️ Our reactions
See the embedded video for this 👆
We can only control internal situations within us.
We cannot control anything external or outside of us.
The problem is we don’t know that. We burn ourselves out stressing and overthinking the shit out of everything.
This means we perform poorly.
Most people think burnout is a result of taking too much action.
But, we often burn out by overthinking the shit out of stuff without taking any action.
Things You Can’t Control
Algorithms + Audiences
👉 You can’t control how many views you get.
👉 You can’t control how many likes, comments, and shares you get.
👉 You can’t control whether the invisible audience likes your creative work or not.
👉 You can’t control whether they judge you or not
👉 You can’t control if they like you or not.
👉 You can’t control anything external to you.
We can’t control any of that. Trying to do so is burning you out, and severely limiting your creative and business opportunities.
This is why most people fail to build an audience.
Or a successful business.
And why most people will not be able to fulfil their purpose.
They are focusing their limited energy on areas that they have zero control over.
Things We Can Control
👉 We can control how we show up.
👉 Are we living a life true to ourselves or are we living a life based on other people’s expectations of us?
👉 Are we authentic creators?
👉 Are we proud of our work?
👉Or does the pride in our work depend if the audience — and or the algorithim likes it?
👉 We have zero control over what others think of us.
👉 Or our work.
And stressing about it is crippling our creativity.
And burning us out.
Focus all your energy on the things you can control and you will achieve more with less energy.
👆 This is Pareto’s principle
20% of your effort ( on the things you CAN control)
Will get you 80% of your results.
This is how your favourite sports stars and athletes use the dichotomy of control to gain peak performance levels without burning out
This is how I use it to produce more content without burning out.
It has also been the biggest game changer for my peace of mind
👉 You can control how you help others.
👉 You can control following your curiosity and doing things that light you up even if you can’t see the full path yet.
👉 You can control how much effort you put into your creative work
👉 You can control your reactions.
When bad shit happens…as it always does 🫣
👉 You can choose to see the positive and learn the lesson, or you see the negative and continue repeating the same patterns.
It’s a choice.
We have been socially conditioned by the neurotypical society to avoid uncertainty.
We have been taught to play it safe.
We have been taught to trade purpose and meaning for the security of a regular pay cheque.
Neurotypicals are specialists.
They followed the traditional path.
They got jobs they hate to service the debt of buying shit they don’t need to impress people they don’t like.
We are the opposite.
We seek purpose and meaning.
We seek creativity and connections.
This can only be achieved by getting out of our lanes.
By refusing to squeeze ourselves into the limiting boxes of other people’s expectations.
And sticking two fingers up to the status quo.
This means we have to put ourselves into situations that are out of our control.
It’s a choice.
To live a purposeful and creative life we choose to accept uncertainty. There is no traditional path.
Accept it. It’s a life filled with curiosity and creativity.
If you choose and accept this, you will feel in control which will give you peace of mind.
Try it out for yourselves.
Hope this helps.
✌️out