Three de-prioritizations (re-prioritizations) to improve results

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Put courage before results

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If you prioritize choosing courage and honoring yourself for choosing courage, regardless of whether or how much you got the desired results, in the big picture, you're likely to get more results.

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Example: If you choose courage, again and again, to approach prospects for your business, feeling great about choosing courage each time regardless of each prospect's final response, you're likely to get more clients than if you prioritize getting clients.

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Put experimentation before results

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If you prioritize the idea of experimenting with techniques and processes that may or may not get the desired results, in the long run, you're likely to get more results.

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Example: Don't ask a referral source for introductions. Instead, ask them for the favor of doing an experiment with you.

 

"John, I've got an unusual favor to ask. So feel free to say 'no' if it doesn't feel comfortable, okay? It involves doing a 15-minute experiment together with me to see what happens. Let me explain. Together, on the telephone, you'll be looking at your contact list, starting with the A's. Checking each name, one by one, you'll ask yourself silently two questions.

 

"Number one: 'Do I think this person might be open to accepting a one-hour gift coaching session from Dwight, no cost and no obligation?' Number two: 'Do I feel comfortable with Dwight contacting this person to offer them the gift?' Only if you got a 'yes' to both questions in your mind, would you provide me with their contact information, otherwise I'd never know about them. Then you'd look at the next name in your list and do the same.

 

"We'd continue with the experiment for 15 minutes and then stop to look at the results. Maybe you found no names where the answer was 'yes' to both questions. That would be fine and I'd be grateful to you for doing this experiment with me. If you found one, two, or even three names that you were happy to give me, that would be even finer. Regardless of the results of this experiment, I would be happy and I hope you would too. Do you need to know any more to decide if you would be willing to do me this favor for me?"

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Put an enjoyable process before results

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If you prioritize ensuring that you've designed enjoyable processes to get the results you want, you're more likely to stay in consistent and persistent action and therefore the probability of getting the results you want will be greater, even in the shorter run.

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Example: Living in Phoenix, Arizona in 1994 at 50 years old, I was becoming acutely aware of how my lack of rigorous activity was leading me toward an unhealthy and unenergetic future. I felt guilty. I felt anxious. I even felt some shame. But I procrastinated on doing anything about it.

 

Examining this problem more deeply than before, I asked myself, “What benefits are you getting from not exercising?” It dawned on me that exercise did not occur to me as an attractive, enjoyable activity. It occurred as hard and difficult. The benefits were that I got to avoid doing something that occurred as hard and difficult. Very attractive benefits.

 

This led to a new question, “How could I enjoy the process of exercising?” The answer wasn’t immediately obvious. I kept thinking of different types of exercise and different ways of doing them, like going to the gym or jogging, but none were attractive to me. But I kept asking the question; I kept brainstorming with myself.  

 

"Eureka!" The solution was so exciting. When it occurred to me, I knew that it would work. I lived a ten-minute drive from Camelback Mountain. I asked four different friends, on a standard day of the week for each friend, to meet me at the base of Camelback at 6.30 in the morning. Together we would climb the mountain...not to the top, but turning around at a point where our total climbing up-and-down time was about 75 minutes. As we climbed we talked, enjoying each others’ words and company. I hardly even noticed I was getting good exercise.

 

I had found a way to enjoy the process of exercising. Dwight-Next, the part of me concerned about my future, was happy because I was getting good exercise for a healthy future. Dwight-Now, the part of me concerned about just enjoying now, was happy because he was having fun now, he was having fun with the process.

 

Procrastinating on exercise was a thing of the past! Not only was it easy to get started immediately on my new exercise program, climbing Camelback with my friends, but it was also a piece of cake and a healthy cake at that.

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Not only more results but including the most important result of all

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When we think of results we want to achieve, like a healthy body, a car, a house, a family, or a promotion, we're thinking of target results that will hopefully occur at the end of various processes. In contrast, process results are those that we'll get, either unwanted (the process will be boring or difficult or unpleasant or scary) or wanted (the process will be enjoyable or exciting or fun). Yet when deciding on and planning for target results, we don't think to ensure that we include process results as an important part of the overall package.

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By de-prioritizing results in favor of prioritizing courage, experimentation, and creating enjoyable processes, we'll be loving both the journey and the target results of our life, not limiting ourselves to just achieving target results.

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