Results follow work

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Brian Kight

“Don’t complain about results you didn’t get from work you didn’t do.” Have you heard that before? It’s a reminder that every result requires work.

If that work doesn’t happen because you don’t do it, you must not be surprised why the result doesn’t happen, let alone complain. Never complain. Your results follow your work. Every effect has a cause.

Let’s go one level deeper though.

Given the choice between doing something or doing nothing, do something. Any work is better than no work. But the greatest results don’t come from just any work. The quality of your work matters.

Higher value results require higher quality effort and adjustment, focus and perspective, urgency and patience. The quality of your results follows the quality of your effort.

The greatest results require:

  • Courage to go where there is no path.
  • Discipline to block out distractions.
  • Skill to overcome the challenges.
  • Endurance to keep going.
  • Resilience to come back after disappointments.
  • Belief to finish when the result is uncertain. 

So we can extend the saying from the opening to say, “Don’t complain about results you didn’t get from work you didn’t do well enough.”

Event + Response = Outcome. Do the work.

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