When I was writing my blog ‘Are you an Optimist or a Pessimist? a few weeks ago, I got a nagging feeling that you might be saying ‘How can you be optimistic when the world is going to hell in a handcart?’

‘How can one be optimistic when we have people suffering the effects of wars, armed conflicts, famine, earthquakes, climate change and floods and fires all over the world?’

If you are thinking this way, may I congratulate you on being aware and conscious of the plight of other people caught up in disasters not of their own making.

Many people are so wrapped in their own life problems that they don’t care about the problems of other people. In fact, they go out of their way in order not to know about them.

However I am reminded of Stephen Covey’s principle of the Circle of Concern and Circle of Influence In his book the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (1989).

Covey puts you in the centre of two circles inside each other. The inner one is your ‘Circle of Influence’ where you can do something and change things.

The outer one is your ‘Circle of Concern’ where you know about things but can’t do anything about them.

The media today is very good at keeping us informed about disasters and crimes that we can’t do anything about. I heard a good expression recently:

You can’t affect the News, but the News can affect you!

Covey’s message is to put your attention and efforts into the circle where you can be effective, and minimise your time and attention in the one where you can do little or nothing.

This sounds very stark and bleak. However I believe there is still a value in ‘compassion’. I mean by this you should still be open to have compassion for the people trapped in the ills of our world.

Maybe there is a little you can do for them, such as give money to disaster funds or to charities that work with disadvantaged people.

Beyond that we should concentrate on doing the best we can in our Circle of Influence because that is the best way you can help those beyond it.

You may well ask how can we do that?
One thing we can do is to be so effective that we are able to increase the size of our circle of influence to benefit more of the people around us who we can reach.

The second thing is that we will come to be regarded as ‘successful’ in our field of operation because we exert influence and get things done.

That means we become an example to other people of how to grow one’s field of influence and how they too can expand their circles of influence.

This is my ‘optimistic’ view of the best way we can improve conditions in our circle of concern.

I hope it is some help to you.  Please comment in the Comments Box below.

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PS   There was a very relevant Comment on my first post about Optimism.    Dagmar Bryant, our Resilience Expert, who said she is careful to keep the company of optimistic positive people and avoid the company of pessimistic negative people. Very good advice!