Mindset Moments

Because at the same moment that four humans were hurtling towards the Moon on a rocket named Orion...the rest of the world was doing what it always does.

Mindless wars...pure hatred...utter deception...unbelievable cruelty...barbaric violence.

The slow, grinding depravity that fills our newsfeeds, our radio waves, our WhatsApp conversations and our morning coffee scrolls. The footage you wish you hadn't seen and the headlines that sit with you emotionally for days.

And I couldn't help noticing that with a complicated mix of pride and sadness, that so much of both the best and worst of what's happening in the world right now seems to flow from the same source. Men. With extraordinary power, intelligence and resource. Some choosing to use it to push humanity forward. Others... not. Some who we thought were one thing, revealing themselves to be quite another. That contrast sat with me last night more than I expected it to.

How do you hold all of that at once?

How do you let yourself feel the wonder of the launch without it feeling obscene given everything else?

I didn't have a clear answer last night and I'm not sure I do this morning either.

But I do know something that helps...aside from a huge hug with my dog 'Alfie' this morning whilst shedding a little tear...and I want to share it with you.

The world is not your responsibility to fix. But it is your responsibility to engage with.

There's a framework I come back to again and again, both in my own life and in my work with clients. It's called the Circles of Control. Developed originally I believe by Stoic philosophers thousands of years ago, but later popularised by Stephen Covey.

It looks like this:

Three circles inside each other (imagine a sort of archery target).

At the centre is your Circle of Control. Filled with the things you can directly influence. Your thoughts. Your choices. Your actions. Your response to what happens. How you treat people. What you give your energy to.

Around that centre circle is your Circle of Influence. The things you can't control directly but can affect. Your relationships. Your community. The way you show up at work. The organisations and causes you choose to support. The conversations you're willing to have.

And around that, the outside circle, vast, overwhelming, relentless...this is your Circle of Concern (i.e. or often referred to as No Control ). Everything you care about but cannot control. Wars. Political decisions. Natural disasters. The state of the world. Other people's choices. The news. The weather. Global Health etc.

But the thing most of us do without realising it...

We spend enormous amounts of emotional and mental energy living in that outer circle where we have no control. Consumed by things we care about deeply but can do nothing about today. In doing this, we shrink the inner circles, the places where we could actually make a difference.

The result is that paralysing feeling, the constant overwhelm. Even the guilt for feeling joy when the world is in such a tragic state. The exhaustion of carrying things that were never ours to carry alone.

What last night taught me

Watching the Artemis II launch wasn't an act of ignoring the world's suffering.

It was an act of acknowledging and remembering what humans are also capable of.

I genuinely think we need that right now....desperately. Not as escapism, not just as hope but as a reminder, as evidence. To know that the same species capable of extraordinary cruelty is also capable of extraordinary courage, collaboration and wonder.

Holding both of those truths at once isn't contradiction, it's wisdom. And we know that it is possible for two things to be true at once.

The launch happened in my Circle of Concern...I couldn't control it, I didn't make it happen, I was just a grateful witness. So is most of the world's suffering. Whist it is real, important and of course worthy of my care and some of my attention, it is not mine to fix alone and not helped by me collapsing under the weight of it.

What is in my circles, the ones I can actually do something with, is how I respond. The things I can try and influence and the things I can definitely control. What I do with the feeling. Who I show up for today. What small, human act of decency, connection or courage I choose in my own small corner of the world. The small things I can do around me to make a difference. Even just speaking about this openly and honestly plays a small role. That's not nothing, it means something.

Three practical things worth trying

If any of this is resonating...and it doesn't have to be a rocket launch that triggered it for you. It might be something closer to home. A family situation that feels impossible, a workplace that's draining you, a community you're watching struggle. Or yes, the relentless weight of the news.

Whatever it is that's been making you feel simultaneously overwhelmed, guilty, anxious and somehow responsible for things way beyond your reach...these three things won't fix any of it. But they might help you find your footing again and from there you can actually do something. Which is more than the overwhelm ever allows you to do.

And if you want to explore this kind of thinking in a coaching conversation...

I'd love to hear from you! No pressure, no sales pitch, no being told what to do. I always offer a free 30-minute intro to coaching call where we can have a proper think together and work out if it might help.

Book a free introductory call here →

A final thought

Right now, as I write this, four humans are somewhere above the Earth, heading towards the Moon in a spacecraft called Orion. I wonder what thoughts the view is sparking for them...I'm sure we'll get to hear soon.

Also right now, in countless places across the world, people are doing quiet, unglamorous, essential acts of kindness, courage and decency that nobody will ever make a documentary about.

Again, both of those things are true simultaneously.

I keep thinking about William Shatner, the original Captain Kirk himself, who actually went to space in 2021. He'd spent nearly 60 years dreaming about it and many years pretending to be there. He expected elation, wonder, catharsis...yet what he got stopped him in his tracks. He described it as among the strongest feelings of grief he had ever encountered, looking back at the fragile, beautiful Earth and feeling the contrast between its warmth and the cold emptiness of space. "My trip to space was supposed to be a celebration," he wrote. "Instead, it felt like a funeral."

He looked back at the Earth, this tiny, luminous, fragile thing and saw it differently. "It's a little tiny rock with an onion skin air around it," he said. "That's how fragile it all is. We hang by a thread." The jewel we live on, that we so easily forget to notice.

There's actually a name for what he experienced, the Overview Effect, that profound shift in perspective that comes with seeing our home from a distance. But it did eventually gave him back something. A sense of hope and a fierce, renewed conviction about what matters.

I think that's what I felt a little of last night, watching the launch from my sofa in considerably less dramatic circumstances.

You don't have to fix the broken parts of the world today. But you do get to choose, in your own circle, in your own life, what kind of human you're going to be in it.

That's not a small thing and it might just be the whole thing.

"You have power over your mind, not outside events. Realise this and you will find strength." ~ Marcus Aurelius

And from me: "My challenge to you, and to myself, is this: to go boldy. To show up as the most human version of yourself you can manage today. The kind that makes your soul shine and reminds someone else that theirs can too."

Remember, if you’re curious, you can book a FREE introductory call below.