Khairul Anuar Safiullah is a trainer with a passion for fully experiential learnings. He exercises competence in leadership, mindset change, sales, communication, presentation skills, customer service, team building, creativity, problem solving, personal effectiveness and image management.
In the past five articles, we talked about goal setting, which included how to set goals, make them clear, how to maintain motivation and commit to them and how to take ownership of them.
In terms of goals, there are only two outcomes that are inevitable in terms of results. You either achieve them or you don’t. There is no such thing as achieving 50 percent or 75 percent or anything in between zero and 100 percent. The goal is considered achieved only at 100 percent. The fact is, sometimes we will not achieve the 100 percent.
What does this mean to us personally?
Results VS You
Achieving or not achieving your goals does not make you who you are. The results do not determine whether you are a good or bad person. It simply means you did not achieve those results.
You see, results are just information on how effective you were during that time period. It shows whether you have done the necessary to achieve those goals.
Given that results are just information that allows for feedback, the next three questions to ask yourself would be:
1.What worked?
During that period of time, what did I do that produced results?
2.What did not work?
During that time, what did I do that did not produce results?
3. What’s next?
Knowing what worked and what did not work, what do I need to change to make it work?
We often develop a self-image of who we are, based on the results we achieve. We then label ourselves as incompetent, not good enough or stupid when we don’t achieve them; or great, good and superb when we achieve them.
Good or bad, they’re important
I would like to be clear on the fact that results are important. They require hard work and attention. They require us to make choices that we may not like. Results are feedback on whether you have done all those. That’s what they are – information.
They do not say whether you are bad, good, not good enough or anything else. Results measure your effectiveness in achieving your goals. Results reflect whether what you’ve done has helped or did not help you in achieving your goals.
Answering the questions on what worked, what did not work and what’s next gives you objectivity on those results. It’s a post mortem you could say. It provides a platform to move forward and work on getting those results again. If it didn’t happen in one way, do something different, right?
When I say results is just information, it is not an excuse to just let go and hope whatever will be, will be. The actions that you took will be reflected as results. You will need to give it 100 percent and be focused on getting those results. What it does not reflect on is your state as a human being, whether good or bad.
Don’t beat yourself up for not achieving results. Keep it as an objective and find a way through so that you could move forward. Till the next article, keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the skies. Jumpa lagi!
