Focus on what causes success, not the success itself
I went on a leadership training course a few years ago and in the breaks, they taught us to juggle.
At first, I thought it was just a bit of fun, but it turned out to be one of the best demonstrations of how people learn that I’ve seen.
It taught us to focus on what causes success, not the success itself.
How novices try to juggle
When you first learn to juggle, you inevitably focus on catching the ball that you’ve thrown (the result you’re aiming for).
But here’s the problem:
- When you move your arms out of position to catch a badly thrown ball, your hand is in the wrong position to make the next throw.
- This means you make another bad throw.
- The cycle continues until you drop all the balls.
If your hands are always chasing badly thrown balls, it’s impossible to maintain a rhythm.
Focusing on throwing the ball instead
Instead, when you focus on the throw (what causes success), you learn much more quickly.
They got us to practice just throwing accurately and not even try to catch the ball.
When you focus on accurate throwing, it’s so much easier to catch the ball and move it to your other hand to be thrown again.
Applying this to personal development
People get stuck trying to improve outcomes (e.g. be more confident in front of stakeholders) by focusing solely on that outcome.
❌ You don’t become more confident by just thinking “this time I’m going to be more confident!”
✅ You become more confident by improving the things that make people confident (knowledge of the subject matter, being prepared, practicing, having support, etc.)
We often fixate on outcomes, but it’s the cause of them we should focus on.
