The Math of Methods and Outcome
Most of us want to be good at what we do. Most of us would love a little more than that – we’d love to be great at what we do.
Think about this math. If you’re going to get top 10% results, you’re probably not going to get them using the same methods that 90% of other people use. The methods the 90% used generated the results that 90% of people get.
We often want results that are disproportionate to our effort or methods. But the people who got top 10% results used different methods than most others. They did something, or a (more likely) a combination of things that moved them ahead of others in whatever they were doing. The people who get top 1% results are doing things differently than 99% of everyone else. If you’re playing on the first line of the winning team in the Stanley Cup finals, it’s not because you simply skate with the boys from 6 – 7 a.m. before work every Tuesday.
- If you want an excellent marriage, you have to have different patterns and habits than most others couples.
- If you want your business to be the best in its field, your methods will be different than most of your competitors and colleagues.
- If you want your ministry to reach more than people than you’re currently reaching, your methods are going to be different than 95% of other churches (less than 5% of Canadian churches have an attendance of 350 or more on a Sunday).
- Most of us have a reasonable level of dissatisfaction with some aspects of our lives. Jesus invites us into a radically different methodology (love your enemies). Most of us really don’t want his methods; we just want his results.
If you want different results, you have to work and live differently. And the change that represents to most of us is steep enough that we’ll keep living and working like the 90%, hoping to be like the 10%. Not wise, but real.
What different patterns have worked for you? What’s helped you overcome obstacles or helped you make a break through in what you do?
