Workplace Wellbeing and Perspective on Control

What is actually within your control?

With the recent increase in uncertainty in the greater DC area and across the nation, I find myself frequently returning to what clients have within their control when so much may feel out of control.

Having an internal locus of control is believing that you have agency over what occurs to you in your life. Having an external locus of control is believing that control exists outside of you, and things happen to you based on external factors. Self-efficacy is believing that you’re able to achieve and accomplish your goals. How does this all relate, and how can you implement these beliefs into tangible practices?

Having high self-efficacy and a high internal locus of control can help you to change your behaviors to get to the goals you set for yourself. If you believe you’re able to take control of your actions and that your actions influence how you’re living your life, you may look at your life in this moment as an opportunity to pause and identify change you can control.

That may look like:

• Deciding to become involved in the community through volunteering or activism
• Grounding yourself in a supportive community where you can share similar experiences and feel companionship
• Practicing grounding exercises such as breathwork, yoga, tai chi, gardening, listening to music, or playing with a pet
• Being pragmatic and updating your resume or linked-in profile, working on a plan for passive or secondary streams of income, reviewing your current budget and spending habits
• Joining a support group or attending regular therapy or coaching sessions

While you are practicing identifying what you do have control over, remind yourself it is okay to feel whatever emotions are coming up for you, your emotional experiences are valid. Identifying change behaviors is not invalidating current external stressors or challenges, it is a way to empower yourself to observe what you can control and what you can do in these moments as you move forward.

-Chima