Influence vs. Concern exercise
Drawing a line on paper separating things you can influence (only yourself) from things you merely worry about resets your sense of agency and reduces mental noise.
Snapshot · Huberman Lab
The Mental Frame & Specific Daily Actions to Succeed | Andy Stumpf
Explore episode
Jun 15, 2026
Where this was said
Nagging Thoughts, Tool: Determine Influence vs Concern
At 4:59 · chapter starts 4:06
Prompted by Huberman's confession that he has been using this tool weekly since encountering it in Drown Proof, Stumpf explains the exercise with characteristic directness [1] — Andy Stumpf "Draw a line down a piece of paper. On the left: everything you're worried about. On the right: everything you can actually control. You'll …" 04:59 . Draw a line down a standard piece of paper. On the left: concern — all the things occupying your waking hours, from social media drama to geopolitical events to long-ago relationships. On the right: influence — what you can directly control. The left side fills up fast; the right side contains almost nothing. Almost. Stumpf notes that the only thing anyone can truthfully write on the influence side is themselves: their self-talk, their time management, their response to events. That realization — that you have no control over what happens to you but absolute control over how you respond — is the pivot point. Stumpf uses the exercise about once a month now, often on long flights, as a way to identify unhealthy attachments and mentally redirect. Huberman credits it with remapping his own tendencies and giving him a far greater sense of agency, noting it even made him punctual for the first time.
The Influence vs. Concern Exercise
Draw a line down a piece of paper. On the left: everything you're worried about. On the right: everything you can actually control. You'll find almost nothing on the right — and that's the revelation. The only thing anyone can write on the influence side is themselves. That single insight is the route to genuine agency.
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