The minimalist guide to always getting positive outcomes

I know, I know.  Speaking in absolutes, like the word “always”, is a good way to get yourself in trouble.  But I contend that there is a way to always experience a positive outcome.  It just depends on how you view events and how you define your results.  (In what I modestly claim is a great post, learn how distorted definitions can sabotage your success—and how you can revamp those definitions so they support your success, instead.)

When activities or events don’t turn out the way you’d hoped, what makes you define them as bad or disappointing or a failure?  Here are some common reasons:

•    someone said “no” when you wanted them to say “yes”
•    you made less money than you’d hoped
•    you only connected with a very few prospective clients
•    you spent WAY more time or money on the activity than you’d planned
•    and on and on and on…

In other words, the actual results did not match your anticipated or wished-for results.

Here’s where your entrepreneur’s creativity is going to pay off.  You’re going to choose to view those results differently and in a more positive light.  Here’s how.

• Look for and find something that went right.  Even in what feels like a disaster, I would bet that nearly 100% of the time you’ll be able, at a bare minimum, to identify something else that could have gone wrong but did not.  Celebrate that.

• Find and apply lessons.  I find it aggravating that the observation “we learn more from our mistakes than from our successes” is so true.  So if you made a bunch of mistakes that led to less-than-optimal results, you have an amazing chance to learn a lot of valuable lessons.  Yippee.

• Focus on the future.  It’s way too easy to get hung up on what went wrong in the past.  It’s harder, but much more productive, to look ahead and say, “What do I now know to do differently to get different results the next time I do this?”

• Let go of the insistence that the outcome look a certain way.  If you get overly focused on how something was done, you may overlook the fact that it turned out the way you’d hoped.  In other words, you got to the right destination, but you just got there by an unanticipated route.  Doesn’t make the destination any less fabulous.

• Be on the lookout for ways to apply all these approaches to personal as well as professional situations.

Now you may be saying,“But, seriously, Kath, isn’t this all just a mind game?”  To which I reply, “That’s exactly right.  And your point would be?”

Seriously, though: Whether you label it “mind games” or the more ominous “mind control,” I’m talking about you taking charge of your thoughts so they serve you well.  The alternative is you being at the mercy of habitual, counterproductive thoughts.

What’s your choice?

By the way, thanks to eeyorerox for posting the rainbow image in the Creative Commons section of Flickr.

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