How To Focus On Progress Not Results To Prevent Stress And Burnout

At the beginning of the year, you evaluate your performance and think of your future goals. In the process, you may be over-critical, idealize the past or set unrealistic goals to "finally" achieve that perfect state of happiness. Unfortunately, that's how you set yourself up for a chronic stress condition. Trying to match those unrealistic goals with your current to-do list can drive burnout, resignation or internal frustration.

There is still hope for you! It is just the beginning of the year. Finding a way to evaluate your year more positively based on progress, not outcome, can help you avoid being too hard on yourself, celebrate small wins and redefine progress in the upcoming year to prevent stress and burnout.

The impact of focusing on results

The main problem of focusing results lies in judging your worth based on achieving a particular promotion, earning a certain amount or reaching a specific goal in a specific period. All these things, even though they are very typical, can be out of your control. No matter how well you perform, there will always be special circumstances that you cannot predict and can impact your final results. While you may have done a lot effort or progress towards your goal, you may not see it. In your mind (or your supervisors'), it could make sense to define these goals more objectively to evaluate your performance. But, in the end, it could make you feel frustrated and set the wrong state of mind for what is next.

The reason is that emphasis on budgets, problem-solving metrics, and analytics keeps our brain more in the NEA state (negative emotional attractor). We need NEA to solve problems, analyze things, make decisions and especially to be able to focus. While the NEA is required to move a person from vision to action, research shows that a person must spend significantly more time in the PEA, a positive state, to achieve sustained desired change.

Richard Boyatzis, in his book Helping People Change states that overemphasizing results or what "should be" makes people operate in this negative state of fight or flight, fear, and anxiety. As a result, they get more closed to sharing and more focused on being defensive than on interacting positively, and they shut down the capacity to change or learn or even plan realistically.

Reward progress, not outcomes

When you focus on the progress, that is, what you have done so far, rather than what is missing, your PEA (positive state) is turned on and you shine. Literally, your eyes get brighter, and speech gets faster. You will be more open to possibilities and feel renewed and curious. Finding a vision, a place you want to be or a purpose is essential to help you remain in this positive state. Success is simply moving forward.

Like Sundar Pichai said in an interview, the focus must be on the effort and the progress rather than the result: "People tend to reward outcomes, which means over time, the organization becomes more conservative. So, encourage the company to take risks and innovate and be okay with failure and reward effort, not outcomes."

How to focus on progress:

1. Trust the process and stick to it rather than adjust continuously to find a specific result.
2. Divide your goals into smaller steps or milestones to be able to see progress even when a complete goal is not achieved
3. Avoid paying attention to rankings or comparisons: do not compare yourself with other employees. Focus on your own journey and areas for growth.
4. Do not use promotions and salaries as a measure of success. Instead, evaluate how aligned your progress is to your purpose and celebrate even baby steps as long as they are in the right direction.
5. Create a safe space to make mistakes, even for yourself. Avoid punishing or being too critical for not getting exactly where you wanted. Instead, understand where you come from and define steps to get closer to achieving your purpose.
6. Prioritize long term, and be patient when deadlines aren't attainable. Be flexible and redefine what is possible in the current situation.
7. Listen to your positive self: Being in the NEA state won't help you get a raise. It can help you find points of discomfort; great! But you can only solve them more effectively in the PEA, or positive state. You have more chances to find new ways of dealing with these issues.

By celebrating progress, no matter how small, you can feel more confident to evaluate where you are more often, adjust your goals or action items, and, more importantly, enjoy the journey. Embracing your present as is, not judging it or expecting it to be different, helps you be more compassionate with yourself, creative about overcoming issues, and engage in more healthy and positive self-talk.