Result

Some people try to stay away from being ‘result-oriented’ because it seems too aggressive and because of the fact that we can never control an outcome. Yet, I think it is a part of our nature to do something with a purpose and isn’t it exciting to look forward to something happen eventually.

Isn’t the best day of a professor is to see his or her students graduate, no one wants to teach the same person forever? Isn’t the best day of a farmer is to see a good promising harvest? Isn’t the best moment of a baker is to see a beautiful delicious cake? Isn’t the best day of an investor is to see how his or her stoke is performing? Isn’t the best day of parents is to see their kids grow and are on their own.

Being result — oriented or being purposeful are not bad, what is bad is when we try to control how it happens and gets resentful if things do not happen the way we expect them to be. What in our control is always just our action and our reaction. Even if we might fail and make some pivots, no one can stop us from looking forward to the result. The result is also something that drives our actions and we can still enjoy the journey along the way. Result is also an ending, a stop of a journey, for us to move on.

I know someone might say “I will go with the flow and see how things go”. Yes, that can be how you start, yet, along the way, you cannot just use it as an excuse to keep going without a destination. A fisher might get lost in the sea while searching for fishes but he would not say “I am not sure why I am here”, or at least not for a while. At some points, we all need to get down to what we want and what we look to see. If you do not know what the outcome is, how do you know if you fail or succeed. Failure or a ‘No’ is still an answer for what you are going for. Perhaps, a purpose seems to be healthier to think about than a result because it is more in our control, we choose why to do certain things. Result embeds in it uncertainty. Saying that “I do this for money” seems like a valid reason than saying “I want to get one millions dollars”. The latter seems ambitious but what would you do if you only get nine hundred thousands dollars, will you beat yourself down? Or what if you get more than that. Nevertheless, result is more measurable and so we can use it to see if we are on the right track.

All in all, a journey can reveal a result so being result-oriented is unavoidable and natural. There is nothing wrong about it, just how we approach it.