Activity != results

I’m a busy guy. In fact, right now I say that I’m the busiest unemployed guy I know. I do some consulting to keep food on the table. I perform a list of domestic duties daily. (No, this isn’t a list left by Suzanne, I made this list on my own.) Of course, I look for a full-time gig. Rarely do I have a day that isn’t filled with stuff to do.

Yesterday, I had a job interview, in which I was repeatedly asked “How did you measure the success of that?” Nothing happens in business unless you measure an outcome. When planning any effort, the first questions asked are “What are we trying to accomplish?” and “How do we measure that?” If you’re unwilling or unable to measure an outcome, you probably don’t truly know how to get to the goal line.

I realized two things from that question, both based on the premise that activity without results is meaningless.

Activity without results in meaningless. Click To Tweet

The first thing I realized is that I love my domestic duties for one reason. It’s not that I enjoy doing laundry, cleaning the house, or doing the dishes. What I love is the immediate results. When I make the bed, I have a made bed. When I pick up the house, I have a clean house. When I do laundry or dishes, I have clean clothes and dishes.

This, unfortunately, is probably a direct result of my other realization – that while my job search seems to have a lot of activity, as of now it isn’t creating results. So I’m going to have to eat my own dog food, and admit that I’m probably not doing something right, and it’s time to change it.

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