The difference between resources and results

I was inspired by Chris Brogan's post at Owner this morning. Chris got me thinking about how what we notice drives our behaviours which drives our results.

What are you measuring when you try something new at work? We tend to move between two poles. At one extreme, we measure results. We know what we want and that's all we measure. At the other pole, we measure reassurance. Are we getting gold stars? Does someone who counts approve of our efforts?

As employees, we tend to work for some form of gold stars although we are more engaged and more successful when we are able to see the results of our work and measure those instead. As entrepreneurs, we want to measure results but until we get them, we would like some gold stars. It's hard to work on your own and hope you're doing something worthwhile. It's nice to get a gold star.

It's nice, but ultimately, your ability to continue to do what you want to do depends on your results. More than anything, as an entrepreneur, I want to sell more so that I can do more. I'm happy for you to critique my marketing because I might hear something that will lead to one more sale. If you cheer me on, I appreciate the sentiment. But it doesn't help me sell unless you add a referral to your cheers.

NLP (neurolinguistic programming) is the art of change on purpose. It involves defining the results you want and noticing the opportunities and resources to make them happen. The good feelings that come with gold stars may be resources, but they are not results. Resources are only useful when they connect with the results we want. If you want to make stronger connections between resources and results, visit me at www.nlpcanada.com.

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