List what you can't control and what you can, then put all your energy on the second list.
The idea
A lot of what stresses us out about our business and relationships sits outside our hands. The Control Inventory is a two-column notebook exercise we ran in my coaching: one list for what you can't control, one for what you can, and then you focus your fire on the second. It pairs with the Outcome Equation: activity plus externalities equals outcomes, and only the activity belongs to you.
How to do it
Open a notebook and draw two columns.
Left column: what you can't control.
Right column: what you can control.
Write a commitment: "I will focus on what I can control, and not worry about what I can't."
Example
For our real estate agents, the columns looked like this.
Can't control: nature, big feelings, others' feelings, the future, the past, the market, offers and closing prices.
Can control: our time, our boundaries, our priorities, our support, our energy, what we attach to, how we articulate value.
Sources
From Zvi's coaching program
Related frameworks
Divorce the Action From the Result: You control the outreach, never the reply or the result, so judge yourself on whether you reached out and how well you swung.
Sustainable Pace: Commit to a level you can keep in your craziest weeks, like one email and one call a day, instead of a heroic plan that collapses.
Anchor Your Clients: Give clients something to anchor to (expectation lists, checklists, set weekly calls) to calm their anxiety and yours.
Second Thought, First Action: You can't control the first fearful thought about reaching out. You own the second thought and the first action.