[Practical Workshop] How to Turn Worries Into Action Plans
Stop wasting energy on what you can’t control, and start building action plans for what you can influence.
Welcome to this weekend’s Practical Workshop
On Fridays, you’ll get more than something to read. I’ll give you a focused training activity you can use over the weekend to strengthen your mindset and move closer to your next level.
What You’ll Get From This Activity
Learn how to spot the difference between wasted energy and useful focus
Build the habit of letting go of worries that only drain you
Create a clear action plan for the things you truly control
Discover how to tilt the odds in your favour on the things you can influence
Free up mental space so you can compete with more calm, clarity, and confidence
I see it all the time.
An athlete gets caught up before a game or a race and their head fills with noise.
What if it rains?
What if we get a bad referee?
What if the coach benches me?
What if the that fast guy shows up?
By the time the whistle blows, or the event even starts, half their energy is gone. Not because they worked hard, but because they spent it worrying about things they could never control in the first place.
This is one of the biggest traps athletes fall into. And I don’t blame them. Sport is chaotic. There are a thousand moving parts. It is very easy to get pulled into that storm.
Stephen Covey wrote about this in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. He explained it through circles. It was a model to map what your concerns are, and discover which ones are worth your energy worrying about. This model is prevalent in businesses and corporate teams, but it is also a super powerful tool for athletes like yourself to gain another 1%.
Worry drains energy, preparation gives it back.
So the model is basically 3 circles inside each other.
We start with the Circle of Concern. This is the outer circle and it holds everything you have no control over. Things like the weather, the quality of the field or track, your opponents preparation or ability. It could be unfair rules or laws of the game, the quality of the officiating, all these things that can make us mad or anxious, that we really have no say over.
In the very middle is the Circle of Control. Think of this as the bullseye. These are the concerns you can act on directly, every single time. Your effort, your attitude, your preparation, your recovery, your words, the way you respond when things go wrong. These belong to you and no one else.
The best athletes spend most of their energy in the Circle of Control.
Between the two is the Circle of Influence. These are the areas where you don’t have total control, but your actions still matter. You can’t choose who your coach selects, but you can influence the coach’s decision through consistent training. You can’t control how your teammates play, but you can influence them through communication, effort, and body language.
When you see the circles this way, the picture becomes clearer. Instead of pouring energy into everything at once, you can separate your concerns and work out which deserve your attention, which you can influence, and which you need to let go.
You may also see there can be a little bit of grey area in there too. For example, ok you can’t control the quality of the referee, but how you interact with the referee can slightly influence how they call 50/50 decisions. If you are always abusing the referee or umpire, they are less likely to make close calls in your favour. It’s really just human nature.
I once shook hands with a referee after coaching a game of soccer, and he said “I was hoping you guys would win because you’re team shows good sportsmanship”. Now we know theoretically officials are unbiased and neutral… but hey, they are human after all.
The best athletes I have worked with all seem to understand this concept. They spend most of their energy in the circle of control. They start with what they can control, they extend influence where they can, and they release the rest.
[Activity 1] List Your Worries
This weekend, put aside 15 minutes. Grab a piece of paper and write down 5–10 things that you usually worry about. These could be big fears like “What if I can’t find my bike in transition?” or small nagging thoughts like “What if my goggles fog up or leak?” Do not censor yourself. The goal is to unload everything that sits in your head before you compete. Getting it down on paper already lightens the load because it stops spinning endlessly in your mind.
Example:
What if I panic in the open water?
What if my goggles fog up or leak?
What if I can’t find my bike in transition?
What if my bike gets a flat tyre or mechanical issue?
What if I push too hard on the bike and blow up on the run?
What if I cramp during the run?
What if I get stomach issues from my nutrition?
What if the weather is bad on race day?
What if I’m slower than I trained for?
What if I don’t finish?
[Activity 2] Sort Them Into Circles
Now look at your list and place each concern into one of the three circles:
Circle of Concern: things you have zero control over. Example: the weather, your opponent’s preparation, the assigned officials.
Circle of Influence: things you cannot directly control, but your behaviour may affect. Example: a coach’s decision, team culture, how a referee perceives your sportsmanship, your chances of cramping.
Circle of Control: things that are fully yours to own every single time. Example: your attitude, effort, body language, preparation, and recovery.
There are multiple ways you can do this. You can draw the circles and re-write them in the appropriate circle. You could cut them out and stick them where they live. You could create 3 columns. Or you could mark each one with X (concern), I (influence), or C (control). This sorting process gives you clarity on what deserves your attention and what you need to let go.
Example:
Circle of Concern (things you cannot control at all)
What if the weather is bad on race day?
What if I get a flat tyre or mechanical issue?
What if the strength of the field is much higher than I expected?
What if long bathroom lines mess up my pre-race routine?
Circle of Influence (things you cannot completely control, but you can tilt the odds in your favour)
What if my goggles fog up or leak? → Prepare with anti-fog, test different types of goggles, purposefully practice with leaky goggles so you know what to expect.
What if I panic in the open water? → Train in open water, rehearse starts, simulate contact.
What if I cramp during the run? → Manage hydration, nutrition, and pacing.
What if I get stomach issues from my nutrition? → Test your fuelling plan thoroughly in training. Try different types of nutrition in training.
What if I can’t find my bike in transition? → Walk the layout, use landmarks, and rehearse the approach, write your row on your hand.
Circle of Control (things you fully own every time)
What if I’m slower than I trained for? → You control your effort, mindset, and execution.
What if I don’t finish? → You control your pacing, preparation, and determination to keep moving forward. You can control how you deal with pain.
What if I push too hard on the bike and blow up on the run? → You control your pacing strategy and discipline.
[Activity 3] Take Back Control
Look specifically at the items in your Circle of Control. These are your levers. For each one, write down 1–2 practical steps you can take to shrink or eliminate that worry.
Example: What if I push too hard on the bike and blow up on the run?
Step 1: In training, dial in my heartrate/pace where I know I will be in good shape for a strong run.
Step 2: Practice riding at that heartrate/pace even when I’m feeling fresh or stronger.
Step 3: Resist the urge to go faster/harder.
Step 4: Set heart rate alarms on my Garmin to tell me to back it off.
Step 5: Write a reminder to pace myself on some tape and stick it to my handlebars.
The goal here is to shift your mindset from worrying to acting. Every time you identify something in your control, you are writing yourself a mini action plan. If we can do this for every controllable concern, we start to really think about the problem, and start brainstorming how we can minimise or even completely remove the concern.
[Activity 4] Strengthen Your Influence
Now turn to your Circle of Influence. These are areas where you cannot guarantee the outcome, but you can tilt the odds in your favour. For each one, brainstorm ways you can assert influence.
Example: What if I get stomach issues from my nutrition?
Step 1: Go online and purchase sample packs of 5 different brands of energy gels.
Step 2: Each time I have high intensity training session, practice my nutrition with a different brand of gel.
Step 3: After training, write a quick review for your own notes. Think about how easy it was to consume on the go, how was the taste, did it make you feel better, and did it cause you and stomach upset?
So we can’t completely control how our stomach or bowels will react during the nerves of race day, but with some preparation in training, we can weed out specific brands of nutrition that you don’t react well to in the first place.
It’s much better to discover this in training where the stakes are low, rather than discovering it halfway through your main event!
Looking at ways we can influence some of our concerns that are not completely in our control, helps us tip the odds in our favour. It might only be by 1%, but sometime success and disappointment can be separated by such small margins.
Making the Circles Work for You
If a worry sits in the Circle of Concern, do not give it your energy. These are things you can only deal with on the day, so let them go.
Separate what you can control, influence what you can, and release the rest.
If a worry is in your Circle of Control, that is where your focus should go. These are the things you can plan for, prepare for, and often eliminate entirely with the right habits.
If a worry belongs in your Circle of Influence, you may not control it completely, but you can usually tip the odds in your favour with small, smart actions.
And here is the bonus: when you sit down and actually list your worries, you often realise that some of them are not worth worrying about at all. They might be so unlikely or so trivial that you wonder why you gave them space in your head in the first place.