Have you noticed how different people respond to bad news or challenges?

Kid A gets a C+ and thinks, “My teacher just doesn’t like me.”

Kid B says, “I need to study differently next time.”

Teen A doesn’t make the basketball team and decides, “The coach plays favorites.”

Teen B asks, “Could you tell me what I can work on before tryouts next year?”

Adult A gets passed over for a promotion and thinks, “My boss never notices my efforts.”

Adult B thinks, “How can I let them know my contributions matter?”

These everyday moments reveal something pretty interesting about how we view the world and even our place in it. This difference is wrapped up in something called locus of control.

This is the place where someone believes the power in their life resides.

All the way back in 1966, psychologist Julian Rotter formalized this concept. And even though it’s been around for like 60 years, it just not something many people talk about.

That’s a real shame. Because it shows up everywhere (and I mean EVERYWHERE). And it might just be the foundation for most of the important qualities we hope to develop in our kids.

External vs. Internal: I’ve Got the Power?

There are two basic types:

External locus of control → Luck, circumstances, other people, or “the system” control what happens in my life.

Internal locus of control → My own choices, efforts, and mindset significantly influence my outcomes.

This has a huge impact on how we show up each day.

Kids with an external locus will give up more easily and blame others or circumstances.

Kids with an internal locus are all-in on challenges, take responsibility, and have their head on a swivel for solutions.

A child with an external locus of control spares themselves from blame when things go wrong (“It wasn’t my fault!”).

A child with an internal locus takes on more responsibility, and grabs hold of something invaluable: a lever they can use to shape their own life.

And once a kid starts seeing those levers of control, they find them absolutely everywhere.

Camp: The Internal Locus of Control Lab

Wait, Erec? What does this have to do with camp?

Everything.

Camp might be the perfect environment for children to develop a more internal locus of control.

I see this all the time. In almost everything we do.

Think about what happens at camp:

A kid heads to the climbing wall, looks up, and says (or thinks), “I can’t do that. It’s too high.”

This is classic external thinking.

But over just a few days, with encouragement and some small steps, that same camper might start watching others climb, maybe put a foot on the first hold, hopefully climb a few feet up, and eventually those on the ground get to hear him ring the bell at the top.

What changed? Not the wall. Not even the fear, necessarily.

What changed was the camper’s relationship to the challenge.

They discovered the lever. The camper noticed their own incremental steps, choices, and courage, and used them to move something that initially seemed immovable.

Most importantly, they left with something beyond the achievement itself. They left with the powerful thought: “I did that.”

That’s internal locus of control in action. And it’s happening all over camp, all day long.

Dining hall, waterfront, cabin cleanup, evening activities.

Nearly every experience contains the same pattern:

Face a challenge →

Make a choice to engage →

Take action →

Fail | Persist | Reflect | Learn →

Try again →

Experience success →

Recognize their own agency

We aren’t making life easy at camp. We’re making it better by providing meaningful challenges within a supportive framework. These are the perfect conditions for building an internal locus of control.

Finding the Levers

Developing an internal locus of control doesn’t happen overnight (or even in a single two-week session). It’s actually pretty darn hard. It’s going to take countless small experiences where children discover their own capacity to influence their world.

At Camp Champions, we see this transformation every summer. We’re only four weeks into this summer and I feel like I’m seeing it in small ways every day.

Kids arrive with varying levels of agency and independence. They leave standing a little taller, with a stronger belief in their ability to shape their circumstances.

That shift is about more than just confidence. Whether it’s in school, relationships, or eventually in careers, we want for them to be able to handle anything they encounter down the road.

Kids and adults with who have the levers within their reach look at challenges and think not just “I can do this” but also “I can figure out how to do this.”

That might be the greatest gift we can give them.

Happy Friday,

Erec