I’ve often read Event + Response = Outcome. To get a desired outcome we just have to respond in the right way. I don’t know about you, but frequently my response seems to happen without checking in with me first.
James Clear sheds some light on why it’s so hard to get in front of our responses in his book, Atomic Habits. It really comes down to our automatic responses — our habits. Habits reflect the actions that frequently get us what we want. They’re also tied to our sense of identity, which is why they’re so hard to change. He wrote, “The more you repeat a behavior, the more you reinforce the identity associated with that behavior.”
This matters because if we can change how interpret why people are doing what they’re doing, we can respond better and get better outcomes.
- Our beliefs & values shape how we interpret events.
- Our interpretation compels our response.
- Our response determines how things turn out.
Core beliefs are like goggles that limit what we see. We choose how to act based on what we see, and that choice determines what happens next.
What we see governs our trajectory.
Change the focus. Change the results.
Feature image by Harry Quan
