Circle of Influence

By: Minol Augustine Pongap


















This is a concept that is presented in Stephen Covey’s book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People that describes how you can have control over yourself and by doing so have an influence on your surrounding environment. Many people don’t realize that they don’t have control over their external environment and try everything within their power to change it but only find that they add more frustration and stress upon themselves. If you look at the table above you will notice two circles; a smaller circle within a larger one. The smaller circle (circle two) is your circle of influence and the larger circle (circle one) is the external environment’s circle of influence. The later consists of people and circumstances outside of you.
You have within your circle of influence the following powerful tools; these are not external tools but are God given and placed within you. The proper use of these tools will determine the increase or decrease of your circle of influence.

1. The Power of INDEPENDENT WILL
2. The Power of SELF-AWARENESS
3. The Power of IMAGINATION
4. The Power of CONSCIENCE

Every day we are bombarded by pressures from our external environment and if we are not using the tools mentioned, our personality, behavior and character is shaped and become conformed to different stimulus from our external environment. There are two types of responses that determine the increase or decrease of our circle of influence in relation to our external environment. These are reactive and proactive responses. The later response is the one that when practiced and developed into a habit will have a great impact in increasing your circle of influence whilst the former, which is usually a defaulted response unconsciously used by us because we all were brought up in that reality – whenever someone meets you with violence, you must also be violent to him. Being PROACTIVE is being in control of yourself and being REACTIVE is losing control over yourself and giving up your personal power to that stimulus – whether it is a person or a situation – in the external environment. Proactive people know that there is a gap between a Stimuli and a Response and within that gap is their power and freedom to choose the right response to maintain control over their self and be above circumstances.


















Change starts with me and true indeed it starts with taking control over yourself and the more you concentrate on yourself and take responsibility for your responses (being proactive) you increase your own circle of influence. The more you concentrate on taking control and maintaining control over yourself, you will find that there will not be any need for you to control your circumstances or people in your external environment.
You don’t have to believe this philosophy but what I will tell you is that the icing is on the cake. Try it out and see for yourself.


Always remember to Dare Think Different.




P.S. Have a safe and Happy Independence Day Celebrations Papua New Guinea.


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Letting Go of the Past Is in your Best Interest

Do you know that your brain has neurological pathways that store your past memories which are composed of images, sounds, words and emotions? (The Brain From Top To Bottom). Yes, it is true and scientifically proven by Neurologists. Your memory has been built during your childhood days growing up while interacting with your external surroundings. So that means every good memory and bad memory has a neurological pathway stored in your brain. Why am telling you this? Well according to that fact, what I am trying to tell you is that your behavior and personality is shaped and controlled by these neurological pathways. Stemming from these stored memories your conscious reasoning gives birth to your opinions, philosophies and beliefs about what you perceive life to be. Your current beliefs and opinions about anything in life may not be based on truth because it may be adopted from someone else learned opinion or what you observed and experienced in the past which all maybe entirely false. Basically what I am saying is that you are living life now based upon the stored emotions, images, words and sounds acquired in the past but you are not aware of it because it happens so fast. A Stimulus from the external world and a response from your neurological pathways or memory bank happens so quick sometimes you cannot be aware of it. That is the reason why we comment on some of our behaviors as happening spontaneously or unconsciously.
Using your mental ability of Self-Awareness you can identify limiting beliefs and mental patterns stored within your mind and reprogram it with success principles based on truth.

I would like to live you all to ponder upon this old zen story:

Muddy Road

Tanzan and Ekido were once travelling together down a muddy road. A heavy rain was still falling.

Coming around a bend, they met a lovely girl in a silk kimono and sash, unable to cross the intersection.

"Come on, girl," said Tanzan at once. Lifting her in his arms, he carried her over the mud.

Ekido did not speak again until that night when they reached a lodging temple. Then he no longer could restrain himself. "We monks don't go near females," he told Tanzan, "especially not young and lovely ones. It is dangerous. Why did you do that?"

"I left the girl there," said Tanzan. "Are you still carrying her?"




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