Do you ever feel like you're wasting energy worrying about things you can't change? As a leader, it’s easy to get fixated on the "spooky corners"—the difficult market, a colleague's bad mood, or a project that feels doomed. But what if your focus on the problem is the one thing preventing you from finding the solution?

In this solo episode, I share a personal story from my return to riding that revealed a powerful truth about where we place our energy. We dive into a classic leadership model—The Circles of Concern, Influence, and Control—and translate it through the honest mirror of the horse. You'll learn how to shift from a reactive state of worry to a proactive state of influence by focusing on the one thing you have absolute control over: yourself.

In This Episode, You Will Learn:

🌷 The difference between your Circle of Concern and your Circle of Influence.

🌷 How to identify where you are focusing your energy and if it’s serving you as a leader.

🌷 The third, most powerful circle that is the true source of all your leadership ability.

🌷 How your horse (and your team) instantly feels the shift when you move from worry to intentional action.

🌷 Practical steps to stop blaming circumstances and start leading your response.

PS: Your horse doesn't care about the spooky corner; he cares about the tense, unpredictable leader on his back. To get past the problem, you must bring your focus away from the thing you can't control and back to the one thing you can: yourself.

Connect with Merinda:


Instagram: @IamMerindaSmith

Website: www.merindasmith.com.au