I was first introduced to the concept of locus of control by two of my mentors, Bill Casey and Claudine Paris, trainers extraordinaire, decades ago. Two things I learned. When people take responsible for their choices, they feel more powerful, even if they fail. Second, one reason that oppressive authority flourishes is that there are too many people looking for someone else or something else to rescue them too much of the time.
Viktor Frankl, the Austrian neurologist, psychologist, philosopher, and Holocaust survivor, also wrote about personal responsibility.
"Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."
To be clear, we might not be responsible for what happens to us, but we can be responsible for how we react and what we then do.
This is a simple (simplistic?) model of the concepts I created for my workplace classes in communication, management, and leadership.
Internal Locus (Point of Control)
• I am responsible for my choices.
• I can learn to choose how I respond to life, including the behavior of other people.
• I can find out how to get what I want.
• Success is knowable and replicable.
• I can create and execute a plan.
• I set goals for the future, learn from the past, and take action today.
• I can learn new behavior.
External Locus (Point of Control)
• I am not responsible for my life.
• Other people and situations create my life.
• I am not responsible for my behavior, including my responses to other people.
• I will never know how to get what I want.
• Success is a magical accident.
• I react instead of plan.
• I only know the present and the past, not the future.
I for one will accept the invitation to reclaim our agency, I really like how you put it here. I've been interested in this idea for a while now as a form of Bodisatva agent in the world.
Does anyone follow Doug Rushkoff's work,? he has also been expressing a very similar message.
I was first introduced to the concept of locus of control by two of my mentors, Bill Casey and Claudine Paris, trainers extraordinaire, decades ago. Two things I learned. When people take responsible for their choices, they feel more powerful, even if they fail. Second, one reason that oppressive authority flourishes is that there are too many people looking for someone else or something else to rescue them too much of the time.
Viktor Frankl, the Austrian neurologist, psychologist, philosopher, and Holocaust survivor, also wrote about personal responsibility.
"Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."
To be clear, we might not be responsible for what happens to us, but we can be responsible for how we react and what we then do.
This is a simple (simplistic?) model of the concepts I created for my workplace classes in communication, management, and leadership.
Internal Locus (Point of Control)
• I am responsible for my choices.
• I can learn to choose how I respond to life, including the behavior of other people.
• I can find out how to get what I want.
• Success is knowable and replicable.
• I can create and execute a plan.
• I set goals for the future, learn from the past, and take action today.
• I can learn new behavior.
External Locus (Point of Control)
• I am not responsible for my life.
• Other people and situations create my life.
• I am not responsible for my behavior, including my responses to other people.
• I will never know how to get what I want.
• Success is a magical accident.
• I react instead of plan.
• I only know the present and the past, not the future.
• I don’t believe I can learn new behavior.
Best wishes for the New Year.
I for one will accept the invitation to reclaim our agency, I really like how you put it here. I've been interested in this idea for a while now as a form of Bodisatva agent in the world.
Does anyone follow Doug Rushkoff's work,? he has also been expressing a very similar message.
Please share the Rushkoff source!
https://rushkoff.substack.com/
Also, his podcast is Team Human and it's great!
Thank you and great reminders.
No waiting to become the counter-power.
We are it.
Matthew 7:5 "first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye."