Hi Reader,
This week something very interesting happened to me & in my typical Nk fashion, I’ve turned it into lessons that I will be sharing today.
For the past three months, I’ve been preparing for an upcoming exam. This meant late night studying, focusing less on business tasks, delegating & letting go of any activity that wasn’t key.
At the beginning of my studying journey, I did an assessment test to analyze where I stood. Last week, after months of invested effort and feeling like I was making progress, I did another test to assess my progress. The results came out and the numbers showed that nothing had changed. This was the first time I had put consistent efforts into studying yet saw zero results from it.
Initially, I was sad & disappointed. It felt like ‘where the heck was the results from my efforts that I was expecting?’
Next, I did what we love to do as humans; I looked for something to blame for my lack of progress. I reasoned that my period was coming and hence it affected my concentration and comprehension during the test. I spoke to a friend who suggested that it was because ‘I had ALOT on my plate & it has been a while since I had been in school’.
In all fairness, these were all valid excuses but in the end, I knew that none of them mattered. Because could I control these factors? No.
So I ditched my emotions and wonderful justifications for logic and sat down and had an honest conversation with myself by asking ‘Do you want to make excuses or do you want to make progress?’
When you remove your emotions & become very logical you accept the truth. This makes it easier for you to identify the actions that you need to take to see results.
This meant admitting that I had invested a lot of my time into a wrong way of doing things. This meant not giving in to my brain’s desire to fall for sunk cost fallacy biases.
Sunk cost Fallacy: It makes it hard for our brain to admit we were wrong because we’ve invested so much time, effort & money. It makes us stick with a decision even when the evidence suggests otherwise.
This meant recognizing that the real reason that I hadn’t made progress was because I had invested my time and efforts into the wrong strategy. Acknowledging this quickly made me realize a fundamental principle that applies to both content & life:
CONSISTENT EFFORTS ≠ RESULT
EFFORT BACKED BY THE RIGHT STRATEGY = RESULTS
This is why you can be consistently doing something for months YET not getting the results you desire. This is also why you feel frustrated; like you’re putting in the work yet making zero progress.
TL;DR: You don’t have an EFFORT problem you have a STRATEGY problem.
Having the RIGHT STRATEGY is the only thing that will move your content past that post, pray & hopefully get lucky stage. Because in the end, there’s the role of time however when you’re using the right strategy you should be seeing little wins along the way that indicate you’re progressing and moving in the right direction.
So if you've been investing 2-3 months into your current strategy and seeing zero results, then it's time to go back to the drawing board, seek guidance & invest with an expert (subtle & shameless plug of my DFY services 👀).
Ending this with a scripture I love that perfectly summarises everything I shared- Ecclesiastes 10:10:
- Using a dull ax requires great strength, so sharpen the blade. That’s the value of wisdom; it helps you succeed (NLT)
- Remember: The duller the ax the harder the work; Use your head: The more brains, the less muscle. (MSG)
P.S. There’s a second lesson I learned from this experience which I will be sharing next week- stay tuned!
Lastly, if you enjoyed reading don't forget to share this with a friend & remember that my DMs are always open 🤎
