How a Small Shift in Thinking Can Give You and Your Business a Stronger Sense of Purpose

It is easy to get fixated on the outcome. As a leader in business, all eyes are often locked on attaining high revenue, expanding business, and solidifying recurring profits. 

While these metrics are a great way to gauge success, they are not the means to attaining the outcome you desire. Bringing the results you want to life comes down to shifting from an outcome-focused mindset to a preparation-focused mindset. It is actually a sequence of events, an execution of choices made, and partnerships built that must be executed. 

In many cases, this initial thought process isn’t your fault. We are wired to focus on the outcome from a young age in school. If you’ve ever crammed to get an A on a final exam, chances are, you immediately forgot everything you learned after walking out the classroom door. Business can be viewed from this same lens. If you only focus on the outcome, you’ll never get the results you want in the long run.

No matter what, you can’t always control the end results, but you can control how you prepare. Here are three areas of focus in order to shift seamlessly within your business and the world around you.

Good leaders aren’t married to a single outcome. They are dedicated to being the best version of themselves in every moment. Showing up perfectly every day is the only thing you can hold yourself accountable to.  

The best athletes don’t walk onto the court focused on getting a win. If they did, they likely wouldn’t play well. During the competition, their mind is absorbed in their technique, reading their competition and responding accordingly. They become hyper-focused on how to perform at their optimal level with every passing moment of competition. The side effect becomes a potential win. 

Hone in on the few skillsets you really shine within, and then find avenues to which you can apply them daily. I have come to recognize I am naturally able to clearly see the larger picture. The more I apply this ability to my daily life, the better everything around me becomes. Dedicate your days to what lights you up and the results will follow.

If you are prepared in every moment, the outcome is not your burden to bear.

When the presidential election results were tentatively in this year, before I checked my computer and read the news, I knew I had taken the time to prepare my business for both outcomes. I knew that no matter what happened, we would have a plan in place to act upon moving forward. 

A large part of having a solid plan comes down to looking at the right metric in the first place. You must first understand what actually moves the needle of your business forward. This will vary business to business, but it may be your conversion click-through rate online, or perhaps your revenue is directly linked to the number of customers who simply view your ads. It may even be directly connected to who and where your suppliers are. Take the time to determine what is impacting your business the largest, and then create an accurate execution plan based on what may occur.

If you can look at a potential impact on your business, know what the possible outcomes are, and prepare for both, you can seamlessly move forward. You can rest assured you did what you could despite what may occur. The more prepared you can become, the less stressful fast decisions and challenges will feel.

At the end of the day, ask yourself: Did I do everything in my power to get here? If you did, and the outcome wasn’t what you wanted, then you are looking at the wrong metric, or simply aren’t ready to reach it yet. You can’t beat yourself up for not getting the result you wanted if you can honestly say you put every effort forward to attain it. Use this as a lesson and an opportunity to step up even bigger.