Carl Richards is a Certified Financial Planner who’s best known for his insightful (and simple) sketches depicting the precepts of human behavior. His work was a long-running feature “Sketch Guy” in the New York Times. You can also view his work at his own website, Behavior Gap. Additionally, he has a podcast entitled, Behavior Gap Radio.
Richards’ specialty revolves around the psychology of money – more specifically, how/ why people get lost when it comes to thinking about money (i.e. Behavior Gap). But…it goes far beyond just money. For instance, he describes his podcast this way: “I focus on closing the gap between what is important and how we use our time, money, energy, and attention. That starts with discovering what’s actually important to each of us.”
To that end, my favorite sketch is a simple Venn diagram. The left circle is labeled, “Things that matter”; the right one titled, “Things you can control.” The intersection is deliberately small; in that space we find instruction from Richards: “What you should focus on.”
Getting the right focus means challenging ourselves about both circles:
1. Does it matter?: it’s essential to be highly disciplined, ensuring you understand your priorities (and not someone else’s) – that is, those things that really make a difference in your life.
2. Is it within your control?: it’s easy to get caught up in all sorts of things outside of our control. That’s particularly true in an age of social media where someone’s always providing something to worry that’s far beyond your realm of control.
In the end, Richards provides a great reminder for all of us - both personally and professionally. Any sort of energy spent outside of the intersection is wasted effort – energy that could have been spent on something meaningful and useful and productive. So, where’s your focus?
Nevil Speer is an independent consultant based in Bowling Green, KY. The views and opinions expressed herein do not reflect, nor are associated with in any manner, any client or business relationship. He can be reached at nevil.speer@turkeytrack.biz.
