One of the most undervalued skills for emotional peace and stress resilience:
control the controllables.
This morning I woke up in a new apartment I’m staying in temporarily for the next 2–3 weeks.
Somewhere during the night, half the electrical sockets in the house stopped working.
It was Monday.
I had a full schedule of work and clients.
I work from home.
No tea.
Fridge not working.
No idea who to call at 7am in a place I don’t know yet.
Here’s what allowed me to get to work, calmly, in about 20 minutes.
I asked myself 2 simple questions.
1. What’s the actual problem?
Instead of panicking, I tested things.
Turned out only the kitchen side was down. Likely a circuit issue.
The rest of the house, including Wi-Fi and my office, was working just fine.
2. What’s in my control that fixes what matters most right now?
I didn’t need to solve everything.
I needed to:
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keep the fridge running
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get some coffee
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inform someone who could help later
So I grabbed I ordered an extender, plugged in the fridge, messaged the host, and got to work.
No emotional spiraling.
No wondering why this happened to ME.
No trying to fix the whole system because I couldn't.
I did what I could.
I controlled the controllables.
And I went back to writing with a story to write :)
Many leaders come to me to learn exactly this skill.
Rich Diviney, amazing writer, former Navy SEAL commander, now leadership trainer who I got to work with calls it compartmentalization:
the ability to focus fully where you’re effective, and let go once you’ve done what you can.
It’s the same skill you need when:
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the fires never stop (entrepreneurship, parenting, leadership)
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and you still want to sleep well at night
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without carrying unfinished problems into your body and mind
You don’t win by fixing everything.
You win by fixing the right thing, controlling the controllables, then switching off.
Over to you dear reader,
When something goes wrong, can you identify what actually matters, act where you have control, and let the rest wait?
Or do you stay mentally plugged in long after there’s nothing more you can do?
