Focus on effort, not results
Our society has a strong focus on results. That is, on what we manage to achieve.
For example, how successful we are, how many friends we have, how popular we are, how much prestige we have, how much money we earn and/or how big the house is in which we live.
Motivation versus evaluation
The result you wish to achieve can be a good motivator and stimulate you to work harder.
However, at the same time it is a very poor benchmark for evaluating and judging your performance.
This is for two reasons. First, the result of our efforts is largely beyond our control.
For example, say you want to be promoted at work. To achieve this goal, you take more initiative and work extra hard.
Even though this increases your chances of getting a promotion, whether you actually get promoted or not is not within your control.
Your boss can decide to promote someone else, for example his cousin or brother-in-law.
Use effort for evaluation
When you judge your performance by results, you run the risk of ending up in disappointment and frustration.
This can have a negative effect on your motivation and perseverance, which will reduce your chance of a promotion.
To achieve the goal we set for ourselves, we must judge our performance by our efforts and not by our results.
This keeps us motivated and keeps us from giving up.
A good example is Thomas Edison, one of the most productive inventors of modern times.
The invention of the light bulb
Thomas Edison has 1,093 patents to his name, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and his most important, the light bulb.
The image that many people have of Edison is that of a genius, someone who knows how to turn everything he touches into gold instantly.
What many people don’t know, however, is that many of Edison’s inventions were not an immediate success. For example, it took 2,774 attempts to invent the light bulb.
After the invention of the light bulb, Edison was interviewed by a reporter. The reporter asked Edison, “How did it feel to fail more than 1,000 times?“.
Stunned at the question, Edison looked at the reporter, and responded, “Failed? I have not failed 1000 times. The light bulb was an invention with more than 1000 steps.”
Small steps lead to big achievements
Most of the goals we set for ourselves, we don’t achieve on the first try.
Achieving our goals takes time and is the result of many small steps, and doing these small things successfully every day.
“If you take care of the little things, the big things take care of themselves.”
~ Emily Dickinson, American poet whose work heralded a new era in American poetry: modernism
To achieve our goals it is important to enjoy the small things that lead to the big things.
This keeps us positive and motivated, and we don’t end up in disappointment and frustration when things don’t immediately deliver the desired result.
“I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I was asked to take the winning shot and missed. I have failed time and time again. That’s why I succeed.”
~Michael Jordan, the greatest basketball player of all time
That is why it is important to judge what we do by looking at our effort and not at the result we achieve.