If you get out of bed today and venture out into the world, it becomes obvious that our society is incredibly results-oriented. You’re used to instant feedback – you can check your bank balance online instantly, download music in a heartbeat, or flip the switch and the light turns on. This can be deceiving…
Invisible Results
The thing that frustrates many people when it comes to achieving results is that noticeable progress to these results often takes time to build. It’s hard being patient and waiting, especially when you usually won’t see the results until the majority of the work is already done. The effects of your choices aren’t noticeable right away. When you make the right choice, you won’t see the results today. When you make the wrong choice, you won’t see the results today.
When you hit the gym, have a killer workout where you push yourself harder than you’ve ever pushed before, go home and drink your post-workout protein shake and carbohydrates exactly as you’re supposed to… do you wake up the next morning with pounds of new muscle? That was the right choice though, wasn’t it? It was… and if you keep making those right choices, and keep crushing it every day, that’s when you will start to get feedback.
If you and I go out to eat, and you have a big, juicy hamburger and I stuck with a spinach salad, are we noticeably different? No… not today. But if we went out for lunch day after day for the next year, and we continued to make those same choices, what do you think the results would be?
That’s why I call them invisible results. There are things going on behind the scenes that we aren’t aware of, and this frustrates a lot of people because they think that when they start seeing results, it means they’re doing the right thing…and yet they don’t realize that results are the last step in the process! If you think logically about it though, doesn’t it make sense that if you are making healthier food choices every single day… you might be a healthier person down the road? A huge part of this is picking your path, believing in that path, and staying the course.
The most frustrated people I know are the ones who gauge all of their progress on the results. This is dead wrong, because it’s the results that come last in the process of success in any endeavor. If you stay focused on the actions, and take those actions day in and day out, that’s when they start to add up to results.
Ability To Delay Gratification
One major difference between people who are successful in whatever they choose to do, versus those who struggle constantly and never seem to make any headway, is the difference in their ability to delay gratification. Gratification is simply the feeling of satisfaction or accomplishment that comes from noticeable results.
People who can see the bigger picture down the road and realize that patience and constant action will eventually lead to the right results have a much higher chance of realizing that goal. On the other hand, the people who have no patience and want their results NOW usually end up on the failure side of things when we look down the time line.
It’s a lot like planting a vegetable garden. People who have the ability to delay gratification will plant their seeds, take the time to water and weed the garden every day, and go on with their life. These people will probably have a very nice set of vegetables by the end of the year. People who do not have this ability to delay gratification will plant the seeds, and be digging them up half an hour later to check if they’re ready yet. If you simply would trust the process, put the actions in, and be patient, then the results are almost guaranteed to be there for you.
When you get to the point where everyone else can see your results, the majority of your work is done. When you get the comments of jealousy, of envy, of awe, of inspiration – you are so far past that first seed that you planted and watered that you can’t even remember where you planted it. But all you did was water your seeds every day. You took the small, almost insignificant actions that no one else probably even noticed you took, and you did that day after day. And that made all the difference.
