THE ZORRO

CIRCLE

WHAT YOU’LL FIND IN THIS ARTICLE

● How to set manageable goals

Small successes can add up to major How the perception of control leads
●
achievements. All it takes is drawing that to positive results
first circle in the sand.” - Adapted from
How to regain control in the face of
● The Happiness Advantage, by Shawn Achor.
distress
— Shawn Achor, Published by Random House, New York, 2010.
The Happiness Advantage

THE LEGEND OF ZORRO

According to legend, Zorro was not always that swashbuckler Alejandro that mastery and triumph will come with “dedication
able to swing from chandeliers and overpower ten men with and time.” In the hidden cave that serves as Don Diego’s lair, the
the slash of his sword. At the beginning of the film The Mask of elder sword master begins Alejandro’s training by drawing a circle
Zorro, we see him as the young and impetuous Alejandro, whose in the dirt. Hour after hour, Alejandro is forced to fight only within
passion far exceeds his patience and discipline. His quest is to this small circle. As Don Diego wisely tells his protégé, “This circle
assail villains and right the injustices of the world, but he desires will be your world. Your whole life. Until I tell you otherwise, there
to do so immediately and spectacularly. The higher he flies, is nothing outside of it.”
the farther he falls, until he soon feels out of control and utterly Once Alejandro masters control of this small circle, Don Diego
powerless. By the time the aging sword master Don Diego meets allows him to slowly attempt greater and greater feats, which, one
him, Alejandro is a broken man, a slave to drinking and despair. by one, he achieves.
But Don Diego sees the young man’s potential and takes him
under his wing, promising .

CIRCLE OF CONTROL especially when we try to tackle too much TENDING PLANTS AND
The concept of the Zorro Circle is a at once. If, however, we first concentrate CAREERS: THE IMPORTANCE
our efforts on small manageable goals, we
powerful metaphor for how we can achieve
regain the feeling of control so crucial to
OF CONTROL
our most ambitious goals in our jobs, Feeling that we are in control, that we are
our careers, and our personal lives. One performance. By first limiting the scope of
our efforts, then watching those efforts have masters of our own fate at work and at
of the biggest drivers of success is the home, is one of the strongest drivers of both
belief that our behavior matters; that we the intended effect, we accumulate the
resources, knowledge, and confidence to well-being and performance. Employees
have control over our future. Yet when our who feel they have high levels of control at
stresses and workloads seem to mount expand the circle, gradually conquering a
larger and larger area. the office are better at their jobs and report
faster than our ability to keep up, feelings more job satisfaction. They also had lower
of control are often the first things to go,

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levels of stress, work-family conflict, and job
turnover.
Interestingly, psychologists have found 1 2 3
that these kinds of gains in productivity,
happiness, and health have less to do with SELF- IDENTIFY IDENTIFY
how much control we actually have and AWARENESS SITUATIONS
control
ONE SMALL
more with how much control we think we no
GOAL
control
have. Remember that how we experience
the world is shaped largely by our mindset.
Well, the most successful people, in work
and in life, are those who have what
psychologists call an “internal locus of greater career achievement, and are much REGAINING CONTROL, ONE
control,” the belief that their actions have a happier at work. An internal locus lowers CIRCLE AT A TIME
direct effect on their outcomes. People with job stress and turnover, and leads to higher
So how do we reclaim control from the
an external locus, on the other hand, are motivation, organizational commitment,
Jerk and put it back into the hands of the
more likely to see daily events as dictated and task performance. “Internals,” as they
Thinker? The answer is the Zorro Circle.
by external forces. are sometimes called, have even stronger
The first goal we need to conquer—or
relationships—which makes sense given
It’s easy to see why the former is more circle we need to draw—is self-awareness.
that studies show how much better they
adaptive in work situations. If passed over Experiments show that when people are
are at communicating, problem-solving,
for a promotion, for example, a person primed to feel high levels of distress, the
and working to achieve mutual goals. They
with an external locus of control might say, quickest to recover are those who can
are also more attentive listeners and more
“The people here don’t recognize talent; identify how they are feeling and put those
adept at social interactions—all qualities,
I never had a chance,” and subsequently feelings into words. Brain scans show verbal
incidentally, that predict success at work as
lose motivation. After all, if we believe information almost immediately diminishes
well as at home.
nothing we do matters, we fall prey to the the power of these negative emotions,
insidious grip of learned helplessness. On But perhaps the most eye-opening example improving well-being and enhancing
the other hand, someone with an internal of how powerful the perception of control decision-making skills. So whether you do
locus will look for what he or she might is doesn’t come from the business world—it it by writing down feelings in a journal or
have done better, and then work to improve actually comes from the elderly. In one talking to a trusted coworker or confidant,
in that area. People with an external incredible study, researchers found that verbalizing the stress and helplessness you
locus don’t just duck the blame for failure, when they gave a group of nursing home are feeling is the first step toward regaining
though; they also miss out on the credit residents more control over simple tasks in control.
for their successes, which can be equally their daily lives—like putting them in charge
Once you’ve mastered the self-awareness
maladaptive because it undermines both of their own house plants—not only did
circle, your next goal should be to identify
confidence and dedication. their levels of happiness improve, but their
which aspects of the situation you have
mortality rate actually dropped in half. It’s
This is true in nearly every domain of life. control over and which you don’t. The point
hard to find a circle of control smaller than
Research has shown that people who is to tease apart the stresses that we have
caring for a house plant, and yet feeling
believe that the power lies within their to let go of because they’re out of our
mastery over even that tiny task actually
circle have higher academic achievement, hands, while at the same time identifying
extended their lives.
the areas where our efforts will have a
real impact, so that we can then focus our
Internal Locust of Control
energy accordingly.
Once armed with a list of what is indeed
still within our control, we should identify
belief in
one small goal we know can be quickly
MY ACTION
accomplished. By narrowing the scope of
ME OUTCOME
action and focusing our energy and efforts,
the likelihood of success increases. By
tackling one small challenge at a time—a
narrow circle that slowly expands outward—
vs. we can relearn that our actions do have a
External Locust of Control direct effect on our outcomes, that we are
largely the masters of our own fates. With
external
factor
an increasingly internal locus of control
belief in
and a greater confidence in our abilities,
MY ACTION
external
factor we can then expand our efforts outward,
ME OUTCOME eventually overcoming even seemingly
external
factor
insurmountable challenges. It all starts with
drawing that small circle in the sand.
external
factor

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