There's a universal misunderstanding regarding better results in our personal or professional lives. Ask anyone how to get better results and the answer is pretty consistent. "To change your results, change your actions. For different results, do different actions. For better results, engage in better actions." Seems like great advice... if it was accurate. Dear reader, starting with your actions for better results, only leads to more struggle and frustration. There is a better way.

Then, some well-meaning, self-anointed, TikTok guru comes along and gives the sage advice they saw in a Nike commercial, "Just Do It." 

If you're into 'splitting hairs' (a term from the middle ages as it was thought a hair was too fine to cut in half, ergo, futile) then you might argue that action is better than doing nothing. True. BUT WE'RE NOT DONE YET.

Back to the dynamic of fear, confidence, action, and results. Review this graph to see if you non-hair-splitters agree.

High fear leads to low confidence, which leads to poor performance, which leads to poor results. Or conversely, low confidence leads to high fear, leading to poor performance and poor results. Backing up from simply, "just do it" you can see a dynamic between fear and confidence as the source of better outcomes. 

Let's Take a Closer Look at Fear and Confidence

Fear comes from the unknown.

Confidence comes from experience.

Consider the term, an unknown experience and you have the makings for poor results. Hence, fear and confidence are a precursor to the results you are experiencing. Here's where it gets goofy.

What if you don't have experience with:

• working in a post-pandemic setting
• a new job
• reinventing yourself
• some sort of loss
• a new relationship
• a failed relationship
• a financial setback
• a wackadoodle coworker-boss-subordinate-customer-client-relative-neighbor

Without previous experience with any version of the above list, how can you expect to have confidence? Now, what happens? Your confidence is compromised. What happens when confidence is low. Fear goes up. What happens when fear is high and confidence is low? Your actions and how you perform are diminished. Then results are poor. It seems like a no-win situation. (Cue calvary trumpet.) 

Make it Laughable

There is a solution but the optics have gone from 'goofy' to 'laughable' (double entendre intended)

By introducing "fun" to the equation, you will have a shortcut to flipping the gap between fear and confidence.

Simply making the decision to Have Fun before you engage in something new or different will automatically improve confidence and throw shade on those fears. All of a sudden, your performance is improved (despite your lack of experience and the fact that fun is the opposite end of the universe from fear) and your results are optimized. 

This is where the aforementioned hair-splitters can pipe in. Now just do it again, and again, and again. Always start with the decision to have fun and your brain will override the goofy fear/confidence dynamic.  

A Laugh-Worthy Story About Having Fun

Scan ahead in this video to 4:38 and you'll see a one-minute story about having fun as a way to accelerate better results.

Take care and enjoy the journey. It's all about having fun.