Focus on what you can control

William Liao
1 min readDec 1, 2023

Successfully navigating any challenge requires you to figure out how to make peace with what you cannot control and to focus your energy on what you can control.

Figure out is the operative term here because it’s not always straightforward or easy to do.

When I lost a parent to an illness several years ago, I had to make peace with the fact I could not control their health (as much as I wanted to be able to).

What I could control was how I chose to spend our remaining time together and so, in time, I learned to focus my energy on that.

The inverse scenario, where all my energy is spent on lamenting about circumstances out of my hands rather than on what I could do in light of them, would’ve been infinitely more regrettable.

As best you can, for your sake and wellbeing, focus on what you can control.

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William Liao
William Liao

Written by William Liao

Taiwanese American, daily blogger of ideas about impactful work in service of others, photographer (ephemera.photography)

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