You generate maximum effectiveness when you synchronize your “circle of influence” and your “circle of concern”, to use, I believe, the language of Stephen Covey (I heard it via Tirtharaj prabhu).

Basically it means that you should be interested in what you are responsible for. If you can be primarily interested in that you’ll be more effective. If you can be exclusively interested in that, you’ll be very effective (although many people who are interested in things that they are not responsible for will spend their time calling you a fanatic, among other epithets - <<que ladren Sancho!>>).

This universal principle is explained by Krishna in conversation with Arjuna:

“Those who are on this path are resolute in purpose, and their aim is one. O beloved child of the Kurus, the intelligence of those who are irresolute is many-branched.” - Bhagavad-gita 2.41

As Stephen Covey explains, your circle of influence is what you are responsible for. Responsible means response-able, or in other words, where you are actually able to make a difference.

One witty scientist said: “Give me a place to stand and a long enough lever, and I will move the world”. In situations where we have no leverage we are unable to make a difference, no matter how much energy we apply. Learning to recognise where we have leverage, or influence, and where we do not, allows us to understand better where our circle of influence lies.

The author of the Serenity prayer prays: “Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

As we narrow the focus, as we eliminate interest, expenditure of time and mental energy, in things that lie outside our circle of influence, we are able to concentrate more energy in the arena in which we are able to make a difference. This leads to greater effectiveness.

It’s a simple principle, but it took some time for me to grasp it explicitly. Most recently, Tirtharaj Prabhu took some time to explain it to me using the terms that I introduced this post with. Before that time I couldn’t put it into words, but now that I look back I see that my success has come when I’ve applied that principle, and I’ve been thwarted when I didn’t apply it. The more I apply it, the more effective I become. There are many people who spend their time railing against real or imagined injustices. The impression that I get from them is that they feel disempowered and frustrated. We start to make a difference, to effect real positive change, when we synchronise our interest and our responsibility, when we synchronise our circle of concern with our circle of influence. And when we start to do that, we feel good about ourselves, because we are making a difference.

There is no contradiction between understanding this principle and understanding the self as non-doer and Krishna as the Supreme Controller. We shouldn’t say something like: “What has Stephen Covey got to teach us?” When someone speaks the truth, we should listen, and hopefully, you’d think, we’ll be able to recognise it. Krishna Himself explains this principle in the Bhagavad-gita, and the Srimad Bhagavatam:

“It is firmly declared that the steady adherence of transcendentalists to their respective spiritual positions constitutes real piety” Srimad Bhagavatam 11.20.26

So when you understand it and apply it, you are understanding something that Krishna has explained, and ultimately established. It’s called reality my friends.