HAPPY MONDAY!
A counter-intuitive idea prompts today’s word-of-the-week…
RESULTS
I can almost guarantee skeptical looks from any audience when I make this statement:
The worst way to get good results is to focus on the results.
This weekend some folks from our FRONT RANGE FREEDOM TOUR team got together for a 100-mile day ride. Since I can’t match their pace, I decided to do an abbreviated version of their morning route. I’d cut ten miles off the beginning, see how long it took them to catch me, and ride to the halfway point for lunch.
Before we started, I did some mental calculations and determined about how fast I’d need to ride to avoid being caught. I secretly figured it would be kind of cool to be sitting at the lunch stop when the rest of the group rolled in.
Once I started riding, however, I faced a choice. I could focus on the result and push the pace beyond what I’d trained for. But I knew if I did that I’d likely bonk at some point. I’d ride really fast for a few miles but I wouldn’t be able to maintain the pace.
Or I could focus on the process of riding the way I’d trained. I still rode well and did the fastest 40 miles ever, but the group caught me with about six miles to go.
Results-oriented thinking is short-term. It moves your attention to all sorts of elements you can’t control and away from those you can control.
On the day of the ride I couldn’t control my training or the speed of the other riders. All I could do was my best. If I wanted to improve, I needed to take a longer view and train better in the weeks leading up to the ride. Then the results would have taken care of themselves.
The truth is we rarely control results.
It’s Monday. Let’s focus on doing the right things the right way, and trust God for the results.
Have a great week.
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