When you’re running a race, you tend to focus on the pounding of the pavement RIGHT NOW. You’re thinking about how hard your lungs are working, how much you’re sweating, and how hard this really is. But if you were to change your focus away from the painful ‘right now’ and started focusing on the finish line and the food, you might have an easier time.
Focusing on the end result
This is the same for those bigger goals you have in your mind. Focusing on the end results helps you take pressure off of yourself to perform well now and allows you to enjoy the journey. If you want to lose weight, for example, stop thinking about how unappetizing and unsatisfying your meal is going to be, but rather think about how thin your thighs will be in a few months. It makes this one meal seem a lot less frugal.
Whenever you find yourself dwelling on the right now, begin to shift your thinking with this question: but what is my goal? When you retrain your brain to think of the future, you can change the way the synapses are firing and it will make your responsibilities right now seem less like chores and more like helpful tasks.
Following through
Picture yourself follow through on any task you might need to do during that day that you tend to avoid. If you have a big project at work, think about how good it will feel to be done with it – for example.
At the beginning of each day and at the end of each day, you should stop to think about the results of your work – even if you can’t see them yet. Picture that healthy body, think about that high bank account, etc. Start placing your focus on the very end of your journey and don’t worry so much about the sweat on your face right now. It means success in your life. It’s going to be worth it.
Have a most outstanding day
Sean Rasmussen
Success Communicator
SeanRasmussen.com © 2004 – 2008
{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Sean,
This makes a lot of sense. Keeping your eyes on exactly what you want to achieve will make any temporary pain that you feel a lot easier to handle. I find that you can endure a lot more than what you think you can. When you think you’ve reached the limit of what you can handle, you can always dig a bit deeper to go a little further.
I think I’m pretty good at keeping my eyes on the end result. I can make it through any temporary discomfort to get to the goal. I know that nothing bad lasts forever and the more I just confront it and deal with it; the better it is.
Keeping the end goal in site definitely helps with motivation. Particularly in the early days when the initial results may not yet have started to show, I find this definitely helps to keep me on the straight and narrow. So rather than focusing on the stuff that hasn’t happened yet (which could easily turn in to a negative frame of mind), I’d rather think of where I will be – something which is ultimately uplifting.
It also helps to keep me on track and see where I have got to go and what I need to be doing in order to reach my goal.
.-= Tom McEwin´s last blog ..Getting Targeted Internet Traffic and a Hungry Crowd =-.
I tend to focus on the immediate task at hand but with the end result in mind. I find it helps me focus better.
Those little achievements along the way allow me to appreciate the progress I am making
.-= Gee´s last blog ..Why You Should Just Ignore Fad Diets (Part 2) =-.
I got some clarity there. Living now as if the dream is already fulfilled – I feel great, happy, relaxed, free and doing all the things I ever wanted to do (travel, meet interesting people).
So by focussing on that the tasks I do now wont feel cumbersome. Change my thinking, change the world! Change… it’s all about change – my focus.
.-= Samantha Banfield´s last blog ..Sean Rasmussen and his crazy talk! =-.
Hi Sam,
One of the great advantages of living as if your dream is already fulfilled is that it forces your subconscious to come up with a plan for manifesting it in your life. The more real you make it the sooner it will appear in your life.
Besides, it takes your mind off the frustration and pain of the here and now.
.-= Jazz Salinger´s last blog ..Finding Your Passion =-.
Or, as Stephen Covey says is the 2nd habit of highly effective people, “Begin with the end in mind”.
.-= Lina Nguyen´s last blog ..Richard Branson Business School: A day visit =-.
That’s it Lina. Because if you are not clear about why you are doing something (not clear about the end) – why should you be motivated to do it?
.-= Renee´s last blog ..10 Good Habits Worth Having =-.
Hi Sean,
That sounds pretty good. Focus on the results you want to have a better chance of achieving them.
Picture myself following through on tasks that need to be done but I have been avoiding.
Some people’s brains seem to be hard wired to do the opposite of what this post suggests. Some of them do quite well in life. How do you figure that? On the other hand some people teach end result focusing and never really achieve that much. How do you figure that?
.-= Wal Heinrich´s last blog ..Internet Marketing Why? How? =-.
G’day Wal,
Now those questions have to be the most difficult to answer questions I’ve seen for a long time in our forum. In one of the earlier chapters in SLOA there’s a reference to creative versus competitive – it may help you answer those sticky questions for yourself. I’ve encountered a huge variety of people in my lifetime, and can never figure out why the non-competitive / creative person can sometimes do well and sometimes fall flat on his bum.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm ….something to think about !
Cheers
Harry
.-= Harry Lynn´s last blog ..How Proud Can One Be ? =-.
Hi Wal,
what do you mean with “the opposite”? They never think of the end result?
In regards to the ones that teach it but are not successful – maybe they only teach but don’t follow their own rules?
.-= Renee´s last blog ..Self Improvement Books – What Are Your Favourites =-.
Hello Sean,
I like how you put a picture into my mind of how the end result will look. I am going to be using your idea for the end result of my goals:)
It will be a great tool to use for aspects of life that needs changing, and a great way to end the day by visualizing all that will be in my life.
Cheers
Lisa
.-= Lisa Wood´s last blog ..Searching For Gratitude Rocks =-.
This is a seemingly interesting contrast to the being in the now, and then again can also be ‘the way’. Hmmmmm. Two great tools that work together, perhaps!
.-= Jo Carey-Bradshaw´s last blog ..Empowering Mindset – Mindfulness =-.
G’day Sean,
One of my favourite ways of focusing on the end results is the use of a Vision / Visulisation Board which sits on the printer of my computer desk. No, mate, it’s not an original idea of mine but one I pinched from The Secret [ Rhonda Byrne ]
I printed out 2 Secret cheques and filled one in with my dream $$$$$$ weekly earnings and another with $1 850 000.00 There are pictures of Aston Martins, Porsches, Volvos and a sketch of my dream house. Been thinking I should push the house idea along by getting plans drawn for a big dose of visualisation.
HOORAY for Vision Boards
Cheers
Harry
.-= Harry Lynn´s last blog ..How Proud Can One Be ? =-.
Hey Sean,
As I was reading this post, the thought popped up in my head, “But hang on! This sounds like complete 180 on what you were saying in a previous blog!” (I can’t put my finger on it, at the moment, which blog entry it was.) But then, as is typical with me and why I’m no good in arguments or debates, I began to THINK! (Curse it! *LOL*)
As I was reading this post, I realised I was thinking of both of them in terms of black and white. Then, what I realised, is that both methods can be, and should be, used in unison. When the larger task at hand seems to be too daunting, focus on the smaller steps to get to your goal. But also, when the smaller steps seem too hard or mundane (apart from trying to make an adventure of them), look to the goal that you are heading for, knowing that what you are currently doing will help to get you there.
A thought just bubbled up in my mind that each of your blog entries shouldn’t be treated as individual items, that you should do this, then this, then this. They should be thought of as ingredients of a recipe: to be mixed and combined in various portions with the end result being your cake of success. That way you can have your cake and eat it, as well as make as many cakes as you desire!
Just a thought!
Cheers,
Pete
.-= Pete´s last blog ..peteboyr: @bullhunter Thanks, Sean. Just reviewing the webinar, and will get to your blogs after that. Big night ahead, pizza on the way! =-.
A blog sure is like baking a cake Pete, follow the recipe, put in the right ingredients and look forward to dessert
Love it yea.. Focus on the end result and the present time becomes a pleasure as you aim for your goal..Yea i like that..
Just as switching pain for pleasure..