Reduce Stress and Anxiety by Enjoying Your Effort, Not Just the Outcome

Constant worries, stress, and anxiety define our modern life. We’re driven to accomplish goals and are so obsessed with achieving them that it drowns us in a sea of stress and anxiety.  Many of us are desperately climbing corporate and social ladders. The constant stress and fear of not achieving what we want, or losing what we have, overwhelms our lives. 

Our happiness is held hostage by our hopes and dreams for the future. We have bought into the belief that happiness will be ours once we’ve reached our goals. Only if that was the case. 

Tourists often suffer from the “Paris Syndrome.” They fantasize about Paris as a romantic, enchanting city. They work, save, and plan their visit, and then find that the city fails to live up to their expectations. Instead of enjoyment, their visit causes anxiety, dissatisfaction and disappointment. 

We think happiness will arrive once we graduate, or get a job, receive a promotion, get married, have a child, buy a house, when the kids are grown, when there’s enough money for retirement — then we’ll find happiness. Our goals for a brighter future never cease.  

It’s a cycle of waiting, followed by dissatisfaction. We take for granted what we already possess or have achieved. Our happiness is always tangled in the next desire.  

What a travesty. As we work so hard for what we want in the future, we pay dearly with our most precious commodity — our current, present life. The future may or may not turn out to be the way we envision, however, the present is here, available for us. We give up the bird in hand for two in the bush. That’s not a smart trade.  

Secrets to reducing stress and anxiety  

How can you reconcile the future and the present? Should you stop working towards the future? No, of course, not. But you can change your perspective and focus. 

Use these practices to reduce your stress and anxiety: 

1. Focus on your effort, not on the outcome.
   Fixating on what we want in our future makes us a slave to outcomes. If we tie our happiness to a hoped-for outcome, we subject ourselves to great uncertainty.

   Let’s say you want a promotion next year. You become so obsessed with wanting it that it leads to a buildup of stress and anxiety. You scrutinize your boss’s every gesture or word from their mouth. You become wary of team members who could become obstacles. Even at home, all you think about is wanting the promotion. In all of this, you forget to enjoy your work and life. That year of your life spent waiting and stressing, is lost to you forever because you neglected to live it.

   If you do happen to get the promotion, you subsequently begin looking for the next wished-for goal. And if you don’t get it, your devastation and dejection jeopardize your position at the company.

   Instead, try this: Work toward the promotion, but don’t attach your entire sense of happiness to that outcome. Keep the promotion in mind so your effort is directed and focused, but don’t let anxiety over achieving the promotion compromise your effort.

   This wisdom comes from ancient Hindu scripture, Bhagavad Gita, that advises: “Focus on the effort, not on the fruits or results of your actions.”

   Ironically, the less you think about the outcome, the more you increase the chance of achieving it. You don’t have to ignore the outcome, just don’t obsess over it or let your entire happiness and self-worth be held hostage by it.

2. Remember to enjoy the journey
   Any worthwhile outcome takes a prolonged span of hard work. If you believe you’ll only enjoy life once you’ve achieved the outcome, you miss out on enjoying life as you’re pursuing it.

   An athlete must go through years of strenuous hard work to compete in the Olympics. The destination can be fantastic, but if they don’t love the journey, they’ll feel hollow in the end. Even if they end up winning, their life following the Olympics will feel empty since their focus and obsession was on winning the medal. And should they not win, they’ll experience despair.

   In contrast, if they had enjoyed participating in the sport all along, they’d find greater meaning and satisfaction along the way, regardless of their Olympics performance.

   Remember to find enjoyment in the effort and you’ll live a fulfilling life. Keep in mind that your effort is always under your control; outcomes are not. Enjoying your effort ensures guaranteed satisfaction.

3. Find your zone
   Enjoy your work and do your best at it. It will give you great satisfaction and fulfillment. Ultimately, putting forth your best effort will make you less stressed and anxious. You’ll find peace from being in the zone of creating your best work. Excelling in your effort will lead to a positive outcome. 

The secret to reducing stress and anxiety is to focus on and enjoy the effort. Happiness from the effort is constantly available to you, while happiness associated with outcomes is unreliable. 

Living the best life you can involves focusing on excellence in your effort regardless of the outcomes.  

Written by Ravi Kathuria.

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