#86 The Outcome Trap: Why Focusing on Results Is Keeping You Stuck

Focusing on results can quietly sabotage progress. Francois Esterhuizen explains how redefining success as engagement, not perfection, frees you from fear, fuels learning, and creates real momentum.

What if the most important thing you do today isn’t finishing the project, but starting it?

We are conditioned to celebrate results. We pop the champagne when the deal closes, when the certificate is framed, when the finish line is crossed.

But this relentless focus on the finish line leaves a vast, unacknowledged territory where the real work happens: the process.

It's in the trying, the fumbling, the iterating, that's where growth is forged.

Shifting your focus from the outcome to the process over outcome is not about lowering your standards; it’s about redefining what success actually looks like.

The Tyranny Of The Finished Product

When your only measure of success is a flawless final result, you create a culture of fear. The fear of not being good enough, of making a mistake, of falling short. It all stems from an unhealthy fixation on the destination. This is the voice of the inner critic, the one that tells you not to start writing because you might not be brilliant, or not to launch the course because a few people might drop out.

Worrying about doing something and actually doing it are not the same equation, yet we often treat them as if they are.

The energy expended on anxious projection and perfectionism is often greater than the energy required to simply begin.

The real failure isn't producing an imperfect result; the real failure is allowing the fear of an imperfect result to keep you from engaging in the process at all.

Redefining Success As Engagement

Imagine a space between your biggest fears and your boldest dreams. Let's call the fear the "Big Dread", that comfortable, safe place where nothing changes and the dream the "Big Dream."

The journey from one to the other isn't a single leap; it's a series of small, deliberate attempts. This is the process.

Success, in this model, is not arriving at the Big Dream. Success is the act of trying.

It's saying yes to the male client when you were afraid to. It's launching the course even if two people cancel. It's paddling out to surf, whether you catch a wave or not. Every time you engage, you move. You learn. You become the person capable of achieving the dream.

The outcome is a byproduct of the process, not its sole purpose.

Where To From Here?

Look back at your last month. Don't look for the wins or the completed tasks. Instead, identify one thing you tried. Something that felt risky, uncertain, or uncomfortable. Maybe it worked, maybe it didn't, it's irrelevant.

The act of trying was the victory.

Acknowledge it.

Celebrate that moment of engagement.

The more you celebrate the process, the more you will be willing to engage in it. And the more you engage, the more the outcomes you desire will begin to take care of themselves.

Francois Esterhuizen, a respected and in-demand clarity and leadership coach, operates from Stellenbosch and serves South Africans globally. His coaching enables individuals and leaders to convert emotional resistance into clarity, continuous progress, and significant impact.