Winston Churchill said “However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.”
Regardless of the strategy, you are getting results. The thing is – are these “the results” that you set out to get, are they better, or are they worse?
There’s a story that Warren Buffett famed investor shared in his mentor Benjamin Graham’s ‘Lessons from the Dean of Wall Street.’ Warren used to convene a group of people called the “Buffett Group.” At one such meeting Benjamin Graham, Warren Buffett’s mentor and teacher, gave them all a quiz. “He gave us a quiz,” Buffett said, “A true-false quiz. And there were all these guys who were very smart. He told us ahead of time that half were true and half were false. There were 20 questions. Most of us got less than 10 right. If we’d marked every one true or every one false, we would have gotten 10 right.”
This example is usually used to explain why investors are unable to win at another man’s game. I think it serves to illustrate that we should also not get confused by what others are doing and keep in mind that sometimes the way to the results we seek are much less complicated than we first imagined.
If you want to change anything in your life you need to change your strategy. If you aren’t getting the results you want, then your current strategies are due for inspection. According to bestselling author Tony Robbins, there are two other steps required if you really want to break through and transcend your current results.
Sometimes the strategy – the way we should go – is staring us in the face. The answer is right there, but we say… “No…that won’t work because…” You’ll get tons of reasons why it won’t work.
What’s the problem? The way to the results we seek is pretty obvious. What’s getting in our way?
Tony says “80% of success in life is psychology and 20% mechanics.”
He says “without the right strategy you will fail. And when you fail, you develop a lousy story: “My wife will never be satisfied.” “I’ll never lose the weight.” “The only people who made money are the ones who already have money.”
Those limiting stories keep us from finding right strategies or even if we have the right strategies, they keep us from executing!
The first step we need to take is to change our story.
You can’t approach anything in a wishy-washy, maybe this might work attitude. You have to take your strategy and attach a new story to it – a story of empowerment. “I refuse to be one of the many who won’t, I will be one of the few who do!”
The second step we need to take is to change our state.
Tony explains: “Your mental and emotional state colors your perception and experience of everything in life. When I work with anyone – from world class athletes to high-powered executives – we change his or her state first. There’s a part of you that, when it’s turned on, can make ANYTHING happen; but when it’s turned off, the world is dead. You know what I’m talking about don’t you? You know when you get on a roll, and everything flows just perfectly without your even having to think about i? You ace the tennis shot. You say exactly the right thing in the meeting or walk out of the negotiation with exactly what you wanted.”
On the other hand we’ve all experienced the opposite.
State. You need to learn how to quickly change your state or else you’ll be ruled by your feelings.
Social psychologist and Harvard professor Amy Cuddy offered a “no-tech life hack” in her famous 2012 TED Talk when she asked the audience to change their posture for two minutes. Cuddy’s research showed that just assuming “power poses” or postures of high power (think Wonder Woman with her hands on her hips and legs firmly planted on the ground; or the guy in your office leaning back in his chair, hands clasped behind his head, elbows out wide) increased testosterone by 20% while simultaneously reducing cortisol (the major stress hormone) by 25%.
The impact of this biochemical change? – An immediate transformation in your willingness to face fears and take risks – all within two minutes.
In Cuddy’s study, 86% of the power posers reported feeling more likely to take chances. But when the second set of volunteers were asked to stand or sit for two minutes in more passive poses, with their legs and arms crossed tightly, their testosterone levels dropped by 10% and the stress hormone rose by 15%.
Tony Robbins says “Great strategies can surround you but they will be invisible to you unless you put yourself in a strong, determined and empowered state. A state will automatically breed the beliefs and stories that you can, must and WILL achieve.”
With state and story combined you’ll not only find the strategies that produce the results you want, but you will take action.
Professor Cuddy says that “Our bodies change our minds, and our minds can change our behavior, and our behavior can change our outcomes.”
With a new state, a new story and a proven strategy you will begin to reap the results you desire AND deserve!
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Thanks Giselle. This is so true. I am presently in the place of working on state and story. Keep up the good work.
Thank you! It’s an important component that you always have to pay attention to. Keep the faith and don’t stop improving! 🙂