Locus Of Control: Internal vs External

There are many people who would like to improve their life, but each passing day sees them wasting such opportunities for either lack of will or lack of trying.

They tell the world that they would like to start a thing, do a thing, or quit a thing but internally, they do not believe that it is within their power to do so.

They are, in fact, waiting for something or someone to turn up and give them a helping hand.

These people believe that external factors which are completely out of their control govern the direction their lives take.

This mindset is called Locus of Control.

People who believe that external forces shape their destiny are said to have an external locus of control, while those who believe that the power is within them to control their actions, choices and decisions are said to have an internal locus of control.

External: controlled from without. Internal: controlled from within.

A simple exercise to determine which side we fall under can be done by answering a few simple questions: Are people more often captains of their destinies or victims of their circumstances ? Are they the playwrights, directors, and actors of their own lives or prisoners of invisible situations?

A person with an internal locus of control would say:

“In the long run, people get the respect they deserve in this world.” While one with an external locus of control would say: “Unfortunately, people’s worth often passes by unrecognized no matter how hard they try.”

The internal would say: “What happens to me is my own doing.” Compared to the external: “Sometimes I feel that I don’t have enough control over the direction my life is taking.”

Again the internal says: “The average person has an influence in government decisions.” While the external says: “This world is run by a few people on top, and there is not much the little guy can do about it.”

More examples below of an external locus of control:

“Oh well, it’s easy for him to quit smoking, he never smoked that much anyway.”

“It’s easy for her to exercise three times a week, she actually enjoys running.”

“It’s easy for those people to keep the weight off, they have faster metabolisms!”

“I’ve always been bad at managing my finances.”

“The universe will provide…”

And so on.

Ineffective people believe that they do not have the power over their own destiny. They believe that it is up to chance and fate for them to succeed.

“But in everyday life,” comments David G Myers , social psychologist at Hope College in Michigan. “Those who see themselves as internally controlled are more likely to do well in school, successfully stop smoking, wear seat belts, practice birth control, deal with marital problems directly, make lots of money and delay instant gratification in order to achieve long-term goals.” They are more likely to see setbacks as a fluke. “I just need a new approach,” they say to themselves.

Effective salesmen who view failures as controllable say to themselves, “It is difficult, but with persistence I will get better,” and they do get better, and go on to make even more sales compared to those who did not have that attitude.

Employees with an internal locus of control are half as likely to quit during their first year, and athletes with an improvement mindset are more likely than pessimists to perform beyond expectations.

As the Roman poet Virgil said in the Aeneid, “They can because they think they can.”

The benefits of self-efficacy and internal locus of control also appears in animal studies. Dogs that learn a sense of helplessness early — by being taught that they cannot escape shocks — will likely fail to take the initiative in future situations where they could have escaped the punishment. Dogs that learn personal control by escaping their first shocks successfully, adapt easily to new situations.

There are similarities in this learned helplessness in humans; depressed and oppressed people, for example, become passive because they believe that their efforts have no effect.

Helpless dogs and depressed people both suffer from paralysis of the will — a passive emotional resignation that leads them to motionless apathy.

How many people in the world today could help those around them if they just had an internal locus of control?

How many people — instead of waiting for that elusive somebody to save the day, could be the heroes that they pray for and rise to the occasion to leave the world a better place than they found it?

Read more in my new book! The Trials And Triumphs of Hyperachievers