Obsess over the process, not the outcome.
I recently listened to an interview with the actor Bryan Cranston, and he had some really interesting things to say about the early days in his career. Back then, when he would go to auditions, he would obsess about whether or not he would get the role. He wasn’t performing well, so he wasn’t getting the roles. He was too worried about the outcome and not the process.
He changed his mindset and told himself that performing in the auditions was his job. When he leaves the audition, the job is done, and whatever happens will happen. The outcome will be what it will be, but the focus will be on the process. He focused on the auditions and started landing the roles.
I saw a Tweet recently that said, “The good news about failure is it’s temporary. The bad news about success is that it’s temporary.” Again, focus on the process, not the outcomes! That’s not to say we shouldn’t be results-oriented. I share a lot of statistics about Service Express and how we’ve grown. We’ve achieved our goal of double-digit growth year after year, growing from $3 million to over $300 million in revenue.
I’m very into the results and the outcome, but we get there by focusing on the process. What are the steps we need to take? For us, it’s all about our people, hiring and developing great talent. If we do that right, the results will show. So, what is it that you should focus on? What process will deliver the results you’re looking for?
Sometimes we focus on the outcome first, which creates stress and impatience. We start to take shortcuts, trying to wedge in results at the end. Results are very important, but how we achieve them is what we should obsess about. Focus on consistent, daily habits and the results will be there!
