Great post Niklas Göke. This point is the key for me. As I move through my 40’s I’m becoming much more deliberate on investing brain cycles on the things I can control — essentially themes — and minimizing burning cycles on the things I can only hope to influence.

For me, those are the two defining attributes that help me identify a theme versus a goal. A theme must be within your control — it’s black and white, true or false, you can choose to do it or not. A goal should only be within your influence — it’s grey, can often be measured in degrees of success, has external dependencies.

As it turns out, your ability to influence and achieve goals is ultimately a measure of how well you’re executing your themes…this is my latest theme, anyway!