EP.22 – HOW TO BE IN CONTROL OF YOUR LIFE

This week is all about where we place the control in our lives. The location of this control is called Locus of Control, and we all fall somewhere between an Internal Locus of Control and an External Locus of Control. 

People with an Internal Locus of Control feel that they are in control of their own destiny and people with an External Locus of Control feel they aren’t.

Neither one of these are right or wrong, they’re just personality traits that are really good to be aware of. They both have pros and cons to them so once you know what they are, you can pick and choose how you want to live your life. 

Pros for people with an Internal Locus of Control:

-        They take responsibility for the things that happen in their lives

-        They are hardworking because they know that THEY have the power to influence the result

-        They know that they can take action to improve their situation

-        They learn from their mistakes because they take responsibility for them

-        They are more successful 

Cons for people with an Internal Locus of Control:

-        They are straight to the point and sometimes very hard to work with

-        They have the strong mindset, either consciously or subconsciously, that it’s their way or the highway

-        They find it hard to delegate because they generally want control of whatever it is that needs to be done

 

Pros for people with an Extrnal Locus of Control:

-        They are great team players and at praising everyone in the team for doing such a great job

-        They are great at letting go of things that don’t work out for them

Cons for people with an External Locus of Control:

-        They tend to blame external factors for things that happen to them

-        They don’t like to take responsibility for things that go right or wrong

-        The often feel powerless and helpless to change the outcome

-        They play down their successes and put it all down too luck rather than their hard work

-        They give up earlier because as soon as something goes wrong, they feel it’s out of their control to change the outcome and fix it

-        They feel like they are the victim because everything is happening TO them not FOR them 

As I said, there is no right or wrong way to this personality trait and it is something that you can adapt into your life however you see fit. To change this trait though can take a lot of work and you really need to be consciously aware of how you use your self-talk. This trait has most likely been with you from a very young age.