Episode 924: Internal versus external control
[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining me on episode 924 of the inspired stewardship podcast. I'm
[00:00:08] Matthew Deibler: [00:00:08] Matthew Deibler. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to focus on the calling of God is key.
[00:00:25] And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this. The inspired stewardship podcast with my friend Scott Maderer.
[00:00:33]Scott Maderer: [00:00:33] So what can you do to actually change it? Or what can you do to help others change it, focus on what you can control, ignore those things that you can't control. Put them to one side. Try not to criticize yourself so much instead, try to examine what actually went wrong and what parts of it were things that you could have kind of control over that you could have done something different.
[00:00:58] Welcome and thank you for [00:01:00] joining us on the inspire stewardship podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling in the inspired stewardship podcast. We'll learn to invest in yourself.
[00:01:17] Invest in. And develop your influence so that you can impact the world.
[00:01:24]And today's episode about investing in others through stewarding your talent. I talk with you about where you see your locus of control, and I share why this matters for your mental health and your ability to invest in others. I also share some ways on how you can change your locus of control. You've heard me talk about developing your talent and one of the best ways to do that is through books.
[00:01:49] But if you're like most people today, it's hard to find the time to read. And that's why today's podcast is brought to you by audible. Go to inspired [00:02:00] stewardship.com/audible to sign up and you can get a 30 day free trial. There's over 180,000 titles to choose from. And you can pick one and listen your way to developing your talents via.
[00:02:15] That's inspired stewardship.com/audible to get your free trial and listen to great books the same way you're listening to this podcast. The truth is that we all have a tendency to see the world. In certain ways. We have patterns that we grow up with that we tend to develop over time in how we view things.
[00:02:38] And one of those things that they talk about in psychology is the difference between an internal and external locus of control. It's really just a fancy way of saying that when things happen, good things or bad things in your life, do you tend to look first to yourself as the cause of that? Or do you tend to look [00:03:00] outside of yourself as the cost?
[00:03:02] This isn't the same as saying that everything that happens to you is within your control or everything that happens to you is not in your control instead. It's just about your tendency about how you are react to certain experiences. We all go through life. We all have different experiences. We all have good things that happened to us, bad things that happened to us.
[00:03:23] Yeah. We have successes. We have failures. The difference. How do you attribute the cause of those? Experiences. That's what determines internal versus external locus of control. Do you make things happen? Hoda things happen to you. It's a belief about where the outcomes of our actions are determined. So for instance, if you take a situation yeah.
[00:03:51]Passing an exam in school. Do you tend to say that I pass the exam because I studied, I worked hard. I took good notes. I [00:04:00] listened to in class, or I passed the exam because I got lucky the right questions were put on the exam. The exam must have been easier than normal by the same token. If you didn't pass the exam, did I not study enough?
[00:04:16] Did I. Work hard enough. Maybe I was not taking good notes or, I, my alarm didn't go off. I didn't get up on time because my alarm didn't go off. I was rushed. The exam was overly hard. I got the bad questions. So it's all about where do you put the control in the situation? And the interesting thing is that there are studies that show that when we have an internal locus of control, we tend to be happier, healthier, and more successful.
[00:04:47] While those with an external locus of control, in most cases tend to have a lot more stress. They tend to be more dissatisfied with their life because when [00:05:00] we take responsibility for what happens, whether it's. Or bad. We begin to take control of our life. But when we think that it's fate or luck or things that are completely outside of our control, then we're less motivated to take control of our life.
[00:05:19] Now, again I'm not saying that every situation is always within your control. In fact, having too good of a internal locus of control and believing that you have control over things that you don't is also a source of stress. So part of it is identifying, taking responsibility for your own actions saying, I, when we talk about the things that happened to us, believing that you have some control over your own fate, believing in your own abilities and your own skills, believing that if I work hard, I can succeed, believing that I can change things and cause things to change and act different.
[00:06:01] [00:06:00] All of these are examples of an internal locus of control, blaming others, putting things down to success, to luck or chance believing in fate, not us. We don't have any control over our own life, feeling helpless and powerless, not taking credit for your own successes. All of these are examples of having an external locus of control.
[00:06:25] And the truth is that again, knowing this helps you with your own mental health, but what's more, it also helps you when you invest in others, because see, if you don't feel like you have any control over your own life. Then the truth is why would you work to help others? Why would you even put forward the effort?
[00:06:48] Because after all, everything that you do, doesn't matter, you have no control over the actions and the reactions and what's going to happen. So why bother putting in the [00:07:00] time and effort to make those changes? Why bother investing in others? If it really doesn't matter anyway, This is why it's not only about you being healthier and happier.
[00:07:13] When you have an internal locus of control, it's also about others. And whether it's you or someone else that has an external locus of control, you can actually begin to change that. See, the belief is that this starts getting wired into us at a very young age, because whenever things happen, you either get rewarded or you get punished.
[00:07:36] You either get positive benefits or negative. And you begin to learn that there's consequences to your actions. And if when you do good things, you get good rewards. Then you begin to attribute that to you have some control over your own destiny and your own effort. But if that is more random and chaotic, then you begin to lose that and begin to have more of an [00:08:00] external locus of control.
[00:08:01] What can you do to actually change it? Or what can you do to help others change it, focus on what you can control, ignore those things that you can't control. Put them to one side, try not to criticize yourself so much instead, try to examine what actually went wrong and what parts of it were things that you could have cut control over that you could have done something.
[00:08:25] Take responsibility for your own actions, but don't beat yourself up for your mistakes instead. Look at your mistakes and something that you can learn for from surround yourself with supportive people. If your friends or your family are not supportive, try to find new people who are supportive of the fact that you can do something and try to recognize that no matter how it feels you do actually have some control over your life.
[00:08:53] Thanks for listening.
[00:08:55]Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast [00:09:00] as a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you liked this episode on the stewardship of talent, you can go over to inspired stewardship.com/talent and sign up for our five week series on the stewardship of talent.
[00:09:26] Or if you're in the U S you can text 4, 4, 2, 2, 2 talent tips. That's talent tips to 4 4, 2, 2, 2, and get those tips until next time. Invest your time. Your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact the world.