> I don't even know what this is supposed to mean. It sounds like something you'd hear at a bad self-help seminar.
The locus of control is a psychology term[0]: "referring to the extent to which individuals believe that they can control events that affect them."
I've had many peers growing up who had an entirely different attitude from me regarding what was within an individual's control and what was not. Many people hide behind the circumstances that they have been dealt without acknowledging that it is possible to change them. They simply give up and choose to see no path forward.