Hi Son,
Happy Monday to you!
In a previous letter we were talking about the quote below:
“Don’t focus on the obstacles, focus on the outcome” – Anonymous
I was mentioning a particular situation where I was contemplating moving a treadmill from our patio room into another room designated for working out. I also mentioned that over a period of time many things were stacked around the treadmill which would make it more and more difficult to move.
The day had finally come when I decided to focus more on the outcome rather than the obstacles. The first thing I had to do was to clear the obstacles to even get to the treadmill. That took a lot longer than I thought, but I felt better and better about accomplishing the goal once more and more obstacles were moved out of the way.
The next obstacle I faced was getting the treadmill up one step and through the patio door. Before I could do that, however, I needed to clear the path on the other side of the patio door so that once I got it through the patio door I could continue to move the treadmill closer to its destination.
In addition to removing the obstacles that I had already encountered, of course, there were many unforeseen obstacles. For instance, this was a commercial grade treadmill and from what I could see it wasn’t really designed to fit inside of a house. That meant a I faced a big challenge in getting it through the doorways. Fortunately, I was able to get the treadmill into the bedroom and get it set up.
During this whole time, I was being as quiet as possible so that I wouldn’t wake up my sweetheart. My objective was to get the treadmill into the bedroom and surprise her when she woke up. The outcome couldn’t have been better! The treadmill was set up and ready for use. The real bonus was the smile on my sweetheart’s face when she saw the treadmill all set up and ready to use.
In this particular instance, the desired outcome was twofold. 1st to get the treadmill into the bedroom so that we could both use it and 2nd to honor my sweethearts request to have the treadmill moved into the bedroom. Of course, the additional bonus was the fact that I kept my word to my sweetheart. Following up on my promise to her was an especially important outcome.
What was just described was one simple example of focusing on the outcome rather than the obstacles. I personally believe that by focusing on the outcomes rather than the obstacles, there is nothing that you cannot achieve.
Well, that’s all for now!
Have an amazing day and know that you are in my thoughts and prayers!
Love,
Dad period the quote was