Result v/s Preparation

How did you play today?

Super…

How can you say that?

We won!

Or

How was your sales call?

It was great…

How can you say that?

They bought!

Or

How was your exam?

Awesome…

How can you say that?

I scored the highest!

Or

Forget it… there are so many variances.

Variances to show that we are selling our potential short.

You might have won because you were playing against a horribly weak side.

You might have sold something because the person didn’t have time or option, or you were the cheapest.

You scored highest in class because others never cared enough for the exam.

Victory, winning is not permanent.

Failure is also not definitive.

Your winning can simply be a positive variance that could easily bounce the other way. So is true with failure.

To improve performance, we need to focus on our preparation — the efforts we put in — the improvement we achieve as compared to yesterday.

Because outcomes aren’t always guaranteed by our work. Preparations are.

Takeaway: focus on efforts, not simply on results.

Just because you won doesn’t mean you did a good job (and vice versa).