The other day my daughter was looking up at the sky and said, “Stupid birds!” I asked what she meant, and she said that the birds were flying the wrong way.

I chuckled and mentioned that if she based her happiness on the direction that birds fly, she is in for many unhappy times.

How many times have you based your happiness on something you can’t control? Do you get upset or angry or depressed about an event that you could have done nothing about? Why not concentrate your attention and efforts on things you can control?

In the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey discusses drawing a circle that represents all your areas of concern, and a smaller circle inside of that one that represents the areas that you actually have control over. He teaches that you should concentrate your efforts on the smaller circle, where you have influence, which will then help to expand the size of that circle. If you focus your efforts outside of your circle of influence, your failed efforts will often serve to make your circle of influence even smaller.

Don’t worry about the birds, worry about where you are going.