Outcome Independence is an idea you’ll hear about in Stoic philosophy. It means you are not emotionally invested in any particular outcome. You are confident in yourself and can handle whatever occurs, continuing to grow and move forward. It sounds simple in theory, but it’s extremely hard in practice. If you’re passionate about your work, it’s human nature to be emotionally attached to outcomes. However, it’s a problem when you’re so overly worried about a negative outcome that you hinder your ability to maintain focus and a clear mind in the present. Nobody wants to design their application into a corner, mess up production, upset your business, and lose credibility with your peers. It’s further magnified when others depend on your salary. Maybe you have kids that need health care, a partner in medical school etc. So how do you maintain a Zen state of peace and calm when you’re surrounded by chaos and uncertainty? I’ve learned to achieve outcome independence by consistently doing these 3 things that are entirely within my control.
Learn
This is obvious but always be learning. Continually learn new skills and strengthen existing skills. Having tangible and useful skills in your possession makes you valuable. Learn something new everyday. I group learning into 3 categories. Small learnings, big learnings and self reflection. Small is something immediate and practical. For example, learning a new keyboard shortcut in your IDE that makes you more productive. Think of this as a 2-Second Improvement in yourself. Keep a daily log of these. Periodically look back at it, you’ll be surprised how they add up overtime. Big learnings require setting aside designated time. Think of these as learning a new programming language, framework or new skill entirely . Set aside time to learn a skill that is useful and has a tangible application. Observe your peers and the market. Most importantly, have a clearly defined why. Why are you deciding to learn this skill, what practical application does it have and how will you use it? Having this defined will make you focused and efficient. Otherwise you’ll just meander without any clear objective. Education without application is just entertainment.
Build Relationships
Having a toolbox full of useful skills is of no value unless people know who you are. The best engineers don’t need to look for jobs. Jobs will come looking for them. Opportunities seek them out because of who they are and what they are capable of. You need to build new relationships and maintain existing ones. You might be working on an interesting project with a great team and a great manager. Don’t take this for granted because it will not last forever. A leadership change, company re-org or shift in business priorities (all of which are out of your control) can upheave your perfect world overnight. To the contrary, maybe you’re working on a terrible project, with and underperforming team and poor leadership. This will not last forever either. Focus on the skills and people that will be the foundation for a future opportunity. Some of the best jobs I ever had were a result of the relationships I built and skills I acquired while doing work I disliked in a less than ideal environment. Always be investing in maintaining and growing your network. Take inventory of your past jobs. Identify 2 – 3 critical people from each job and schedule time to stay in contact with them. Make it a goal to add 2 new person to your network each month, but do this when you don’t actually need anything. You’ll find your relationships will grow naturally and be more meaningful. If you wait until you need something, relationships you build may feel forced and transactional.
Do Uncomfortable Things
Having skills and relationships is not enough. You need to do uncomfortable things. Despite having skills and relationships, opportunities are limited if you stay within a tightly defined box. Most of the boundaries we have are self-imposed. Move forward when you have a chance to do something scary and uncomfortable. This starts another cycle of learning and building relationships, which brings opportunities to do new and uncomfortable repeating the cycle. If something feels awkward, that’s a good indication to do more of it. Overtime you build up a tolerance to the discomfort. Things that used to be uncomfortable start to feel normal or even mundane. Like many people I used to hate giving presentations. You hate being on the spot, hearing your own voice, worry about saying the wrong thing, etc. Giving a presentation used to consume a lot of mental energy. So I started to think of discomfort it in terms of “mental energy occupied” prior to the presentation. If this was above a certain amount, I knew my comfort zone was being tested. Overtime, with each presentation I noticed “mental energy occupied” decreasing. Once it feel below a certain level giving presentations felt routine. At that point I considered my comfort zone officially expanded. Refusing to do something uncomfortable only incurs debt. The debt compounds and becomes exponentially harder to overcome later. Doing uncomfortable things and surviving builds momentum and confidence. Confidence leads to outcome independence.
Conclusion
As I said earlier, this sounds easy in theory but it’s hard in practice. It takes concentrated and deliberate effort let go and focus on the present. I’ve found by focusing my energy on the present and detaching from the outcomes, I’ve maintained vision and focus, made significantly less mistakes and reduced my stress. Ironically, by not worrying about outcomes, you’ll achieve great outcomes.