Stop Focusing on Your Results, So You Can
Achieve More
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
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