Video transcript:
You can and you should care about results. I touched on this a little bit in the post yesterday and it sounds kind of antithetical to a lot of the language that we use around the relationship between process and results. And at times I’ve probably dismissed the importance of results. But the reality is that they’re important. They matter for many reasons but two of the main reasons are that you need them in order to play at a high level and that they’re excellent means for growth and improvement.
But first, we can’t escape the fact that we have to produce if we want to continue playing at a higher level. If coaches and decision makers at those high levels can’t trust us, then they can’t play us. And this isn’t to be discouraging, but it’s just the truth. And if we’re going to neglect that then we’re probably being a little naive.
Now the second reason that results matter is that they’re great means for growth when we can view them as valuable information. It’s 100% true that when we’re competing we got to be processed focused, we got to be in the moment, not not focused on past results, not focused on potential future results. But there is a time and a place to focus on those results so that we can learn from them and get better.
Both success and failure leave clues and when we view that as objective data we can ask ourselves really good questions on why the results were what they were. For example, if you’re a pitcher and opponents are hitting like 400 off you in your last two outings, that probably warrants some investigating. If you ask yourself, how hard are balls being hit off me and you come to find that well, half the hits given up aren’t really hit that hard, then you probably don’t need to change much.
If they are then you can ask yourself questions like, what pitches are getting hit more often and what counts am I giving up more hits? Am I giving up hits more with runners on base? You find the answers to these questions, you make the necessary adjustments, apply them and now you’re a better pitcher just because you took a good look at the results. This is a great lesson on failure too cause Michael Jordan said best, “I’ve failed over and over again and that is why I succeed.” It’s because you learn from the results.
With that said, here are a few quick and important reminders. One, you can’t control the results. You have influence but not control. Two, going back to the process, when you commit to your process you have the most influence over those results. When you commit to your process you compete freely. When you compete freely, you let your abilities take over. When you let your abilities take over, you get those results that you’re looking for more frequently. Three, you are not your results. Your results do not measure your worth, your value, your purpose, any of it. If they did, we would all be in pretty big trouble.
Know that you can and should care about your results. But understand that they do not make you who you are.