Christian OsgoodCEO, Multifamily Strategy · CEO at Multifamily Strategy

Having Stress and Anxiety in Business? Try Putting It in Three Buckets

22 Jun 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:05

In this solo YouTube talk, Christian Osgood recounts his own struggle with stress and anxiety while working a 9‑to‑5 job and explains the simple three‑bucket system he was taught by an early mentor that transformed his relationship to pressure. The framework divides any concern into (1) things you can control – which require a concrete action step to resolve; (2) things you can influence – where you can take a proactive step (e.g., sending an email, reaching out) that moves the situation forward; and (3) things you cannot control or influence – which you must deliberately stop stressing about because effort has no effect. Osgood emphasizes the mental discipline of categorising each worry, taking the appropriate action for the first two buckets, and letting go of the third. He credits this mental model with enabling him to shift from a stressed employee to an entrepreneur who built multiple seven‑figure businesses, highlighting that the key difference is knowing when and how to act on stress rather than being overwhelmed by it.

Chapters

I used to have a ton of stress and anxiety around business, even when I was in the 9 to 5. So if you are feeling stressed in the workplace, I think I actually have the solution for you. Early mentor told me this: there's 3 buckets you're allowed to put things in. You can put it into, hey, I can control this, there's an action step that I can take. If I just do this action, it will solve the problem or move it meaningfully forward. Things that you can control, you're going to be stressed about until you do, so just take the action step. The next one's a little bit harder: things that you influence. Is there something that you can do to move the ball forward? Is there an email you can send? Is there someone you can reach out to? You cannot control everything, which is the cause of a a lot of anxiety. If you can identify, hey, I can't control this, but I can influence it, once you take that action step, you're going to feel the pressure start to relieve. The last one takes some discipline. Things you can't do anything about. A lot of people have the anxiety here. I have found once you put it in that bucket, you're like, hey, can I control it? No. Can I influence it? No. I've already done everything I can do to influence it. The things you can't do anything about, you're not allowed to stress about because no amount of stress is going to help you at all. I have found if you can mentally put it into one of these buckets, it changes everything. That's actually how I built multiple 7-figure businesses. The difference between me being a stressed-out employee and a successful entrepreneur was learning how handle stress and when to take what action.