So there you are, on the side of a sheer cliff face, literally hundreds of feet above the ground. Every muscle in your body is screaming for relief. Salty sweat rolls down your forehead and in to your eyes, causing you to blink away tears of salt. You can’t even wipe them away, because to release your grip is certain death. The sweat doesn’t even matter. The aching muscles don’t matter. The distance to the top doesn’t matter. The distance to the bottom, though more frightening than the distance to the top, still doesn’t matter. So when you’re hanging on with the tips of your fingers and your toes, and letting go means certain death… what actually matters?
Welcome to the 3-foot world… 
I first came across the concept of the three-foot world in a book called No Hero by Mark Owen. Marc Owen was one of the SEAL team members on the hit on Osama Bin Laden and the book was essentially lessons he learnt from his military career that are applicable through every persons life. The one that struck me the most was the 3-foot world. Marc found himself paralyzed by fear in the aforementioned rock face situation. He was saved by the words of his experienced rock-climbing instructor. “Right now you are in a 3 foot world. The only thing that matters is that which is within your immediate control. In this case, it’s the next handhold or foothold. You have no control over anything else… so why worry about it? Stay in your 3 foot world.”
Now Marc used this concept as a method of managing fear for future military operations. Staying in his 3-foot world and only focusing on that over which he could control in order to eliminate fear of what could go wrong.
I took something greater from it.
Why limit the 3-foot world concept to fear management? Why not apply it to… life?
How many times have you spent hours, days, weeks; burning precious energy that could be put to far greater use? Fuming or stressing over something that you couldn’t control?
Something that was going to play out the way it did no matter what you did or how you thought or how you felt?
In the end, what was achieved and what was changed?
So how to we do stay in our 3-foot world…
At the simplest level, our emotions are guided by the thoughts and beliefs that drive them. For example, if you believe someone has wronged you, you may feel anger. If you believe something good is about to happen, you may feel happy or excited. While your thoughts can’t change the outcome of any situation, changing your thoughts can change your perception of a situation, and it is this perception of a situation that dictates your emotional response. So going back to the rock climbing scenario, if your thoughts are only of how far the drop is to certain death, despite the fact that you have no control over the distance, then you will most likely feel fear. If your thoughts are only of where the next hand or foot-hold is, then that fear will dissipate. This is not to say that you are not aware of the drop, you are simply not focused on it. Not thinking about it. You can’t change it, but you can focus on the next 3 feet of your climb.
You can apply to this any situation in life! Be aware of your surroundings. Have situational awareness. But only focus your energy on that which you can control! Stay in your 3-foot world…