I’ve heard it over and over again. Focus on the process, not the outcome. But I never quite understood what that meant, how one could do it, and more importantly, why one should do it!
If the outcome is what matters, doesn’t it make more sense to just focus on the outcome? Wouldn’t that save you more time and effort? Wouldn’t that bag you better results?
As it turns out, it won’t.
Because when you focus only (perhaps obsessively) on the destination, you lose sight of the journey. For instance, you may not pay heed to the fastest, most scenic or easiest route to get to your destination. You’ll replace long-term strategies with short-term fixes. You’ll lose your compass, your underlying purpose. And you won’t enjoy the journey.
And enjoying the journey, even with its ups and downs, is vital. Because as a psychologist once told me, “You can’t hate something in the process of loving it in the future.” Because your future is just made up of a series of present moments strung together.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not dismissing goals and the importance of them. To achieve anything, you first need to set a goal — otherwise, you won’t know what you are doing. But it’s also important to focus on why you are doing something. If you only pay attention to your goal, though, you will be pulled away from the bigger picture. Yes, you will ultimately optimize your way to your goal, but you won’t fundamentally change or create the game. You won’t see things differently. You won’t identify the biggest lever of impact. And you won’t be 10 times ahead of the game.
To translate this learning to reality, let me connect it back to mindU Health, a mental health matchmaking platform I started along with my colleagues earlier this year. Especially after the last two years, we can all agree that mental health is a big need among people across the world. And while demand for mental health services has increased world over, it’s still relatively dormant compared to demand for other medical services. So what that means is demand for mental health support will not follow a smooth graph; there will be several troughs and peaks along the way, and it will be difficult to predict.
So what gives? Should we throw our hands up in the air and give up? Not at all! We see things differently and shift our focus. Rather than focusing on short term sales, we focus on building long term loyalty. But we have to be patient because the results, especially with mental health, will take time to show.
Why must mindU prioritize customer loyalty over sales? Because we can only manipulate consumer behaviour in the short term, but to change consumer behaviour in the long term, we need to inspire our audience! Rather than getting a lot of clients who do only one session, I’d rather get fewer (internally motivated) clients who do more sessions and see the full impact of counseling/therapy/coaching.
So what must I do to build loyalty? Inspire, inspire, inspire! Send a powerful message across. Be the platform that normalizes mental health. Give people the courage to seek help. Stand for something larger than mindU. Connect people, and invite them to join the movement.
After all, what convinces is conviction, and I have conviction.
