Stop Focusing On Results

Thank you for sending me this, Dara! This is an awesome article. I think I’ll have to sign up for his newsletter!

“Stop Focusing On Your Results, So You Can Achieve More” by Sean Smith

What holds a lot of people back from getting the results they want is that they’re focusing on the results they want!

I know, that might sound odd and you might be asking, “How can I get something that I’m not focused on?”

Well, that’s true to an extent. You must clearly know what you want to have in order to get it. However, once you know what you want, and you’ve created a personalized ACTION plan to achieve it, it can be very dangerous to continue focusing on the results as a motivation strategy.

For instance, if you’re continually focusing on becoming a director, you’re generally just reminding yourself constantly about the fact that you’re NOT a director now, which usually leads to thoughts of all the other results you haven’t gotten, or never get, leading to a negative cycle of emotions.

Most people are reminding themselves of their failures ALL DAY LONG. And then they wonder why they’re not getting what they want. Hmmm…

The main outcome that most people get from focusing on their results is to beat themselves up for not having the results yet. And since you don’t control the results anyway (you have no control over whether someone says ‘yes’ to your offer), you shouldn’t be judging yourself on them.

The only things you control are your own ACTIONS, so that’s all you should judge yourself against. I’ll explain more about that in a moment…

The bottom line is this – in order to get the results you want, you must do the necessary actions. So what really matters, from a motivation standpoint, is to implement whatever strategies you can to help you do the actions, right? And focusing on the results they’re not getting doesn’t motivate most people to keep doing the actions.

In fact, it causes most people to STOP doing the actions, because we tend to project our poor results into the future and choose not to endure all that disappointment.

For example, let’s say you sit down to make “booking” calls, with the goal of getting 2 bookings. If don’t get any bookings in your first 10 calls, you’ll feel like you’re failing, and you’ll usually decide not to continue failing since it doesn’t feel good. And, since your stated goal is to get 2 bookings (which depends on someone else saying ‘yes’), you are failing because you’re not getting any wins.

If you ever even get to the 11th call, you’ll probably not be too excited about it, right? And that negative energy won’t attract many people. Which leads to more frustration, more disappointment, more doubt, and on and on and on. Sound familiar???

The reason most people play that game is because they’re pretending they control other people’s circumstances and decisions (whether they answer the phone, what they say, what’s going on in their life) and judging themselves negatively for the poor results.

And usually, they’ll take it a step further and internalize the results, pretending that it means something negative about them as a person, such as being a poor leader, poor salesperson, not good enough, and so forth. That’s when it can get real emotionally ugly!

Please remember, results are nothing more than feedback.

They don’t define you as a person in any way. So don’t make them any more important than they are. Results are simply outcomes which will help you adjust your approach so you can create what you want to experience in your world.

Now, there are a select few people out there who thrive by focusing on the desired results, and will do whatever it takes to get the results they’re after. But they are few and far between. Even though many people think they operate that way, or think they should operate that way because that’s what they were taught, the fact of the matter is that this approach rarely works for most of us.

By the way, if you are in this small percentage of people who can focus on results to motivate yourself, once you realize that most of your team members can’t do that, you’ll understand why the “Just do it – that’s what I did” training approach doesn’t work very often.

A better way to do it for almost everyone is to focus on the actions. And appreciate yourself for doing the actions, instead of beating yourself up for not getting the results.

Here’s how it looks: Instead of having a goal of 2 bookings, determine what actions should yield you 2 bookings.

Let’s say you generally book 1 out of every 3 people you talk to. Therefore, in order to get 2 bookings, you’ll probably need to talk to 6 people. And if you generally talk to 1 person for every 5 calls you make, you’ll need to make about 30 calls to talk to those 6 people, to get those 2 bookings. Got it?

Now, making 30 phone calls is an ACTION. It’s something you and only you control. So when you make each call, consider it a WIN! I suggest you take a big green marker and give yourself a massive check mark for each phone call you make, regardless of whether they answered the phone, declined your offer, or told you to get lost. While you can certainly increase your chances with proper rapport techniques, none of the outcomes are under your control.

When you take the focus off the results, and define a ‘win’ as doing the action, you’ll appreciate yourself for each win, which will help you be more excited about continuing to do the actions and the results will eventually take care of themselves.

Using this strategy, so many women have said they’ve gotten bookings on the 19th or 27th phone calls, instead of quitting after 5 or 6 calls like they usually do when they’re focused on results.

In other words, your results will increase as soon as you stop focusing on them.

This is the difference between an ACTION plan and a RESULTS plan. This is HUGE! While most people believe they’re focused on IPA’s, they’re really focused on IPR’s (Income Producing Results) that they don’t control.

The way you can tell whether you have an action plan or a results plan is to ask yourself, “Does somebody other than me have to agree to something in order to get this outcome?” If the answer is yes, you have a result. If the answer is no, you have an action.

Examples of RESULTS: Sales, Recruits, Skin Care Classes, Facials, Bookings, Names & Numbers – again, anything that involves someone else saying or doing anything!

You can’t get a sale unless someone agrees to buy, and you can’t get a name and number unless someone agrees to give it to you. Judging yourself against these results isn’t fair to you.

Examples of ACTIONS: Offering the Products, Inviting Someone to an Event, Making Phone Calls, Offering Your Card, Watering Flowers, Asking for a Name & Number – anything that you and only you control, with or without someone else’s cooperation.

So many of you are doing the right activities, but you’re not allowing yourself enough time to be successful because you’re beating yourself up for not getting the immediate results that you don’t even control!

Results are a byproduct of actions. Just keep doing the actions, and you’ll get the results. And no matter who you are, what you look like, where you came from, how tall or short you are, how thin or wide, how dark or light, how smart or ignorant – if you just do the actions, success is guaranteed.

I can’t tell you when it’s going to happen for you, because we can never predict timeframes when dealing with humans. But if you do enough of the actions, you can have everything you desire through this great company.

When you implement this concept and teach your team members how to do the same, I absolutely guarantee your business will EXPLODE!

And most importantly, you’ll enjoy the journey…
SS

Want to use this article in your e-zine, newsletter, or team website? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it: Sean Smith, “The Pink Caddie Coach,” empowers Independent Beauty Consultants to identify and erase all their inner obstacles and create personalized action plans guaranteed for success, so they can make more money, have more free time, and live the lifestyle of their dreams. To get Sean’s weekly e-newsletter, “Pink Possibilities”, delivered directly to your email, subscribe now for FREE at http://www.PinkPossibilities.com.

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