Definition
Control locus, often called locus of control, describes where a person believes the cause of their outcomes sits. With an internal locus, they see results as flowing largely from their own decisions, effort, and choices. With an external locus, they see results as governed by luck, other people, the economy, or fate.
The concept comes from psychology and is used in wealth-building literature because the orientation a person holds strongly predicts how they respond to setbacks and opportunities.
Why it matters
How it works
Locus of control acts as a filter on experience. After any result, the internal thinker searches for the choices that produced it; the external thinker searches for the circumstances. Because the internal thinker keeps finding controllable causes, they keep finding things to improve.
Shifting the locus inward does not mean denying that luck and circumstance exist. It means choosing to focus on the controllable slice, since that is the only slice action can reach. A blame frame is the external locus in habitual form; extreme ownership is the internal locus pushed to its limit.