The Difference In Looking At Your Life In Terms of Events Versus Experiences.

So, what I've noticed is that people who have longer-term thinking, that get results more, that are happier - will always look at their life in terms of the entire experience.

They don't cut things up into different pieces. And the reason why cutting things up into different pieces is bad, is because you take things out of context - you remove a lot of the external factors that cause certain things to happen and you start zoning in really, really specifically.

I'll give you a really simple example:

If you're walking up the steps after doing a leg workout, your legs hurt like crazy. That's an event that happens to you, and if you focus on that event, then you're going to be upset about it - and I know a lot of people, especially after a leg workout, that are like “oh my god, my legs hurt so much, this is not fun, why do I work out?”

But when you zoom out and look at the experience of the situation, you're saying, oh, I decided to work out because I need to get healthier and be more productive, so I went to this training session, and one of the things we did was a leg workout that's now causing me a little bit of pain, but that pain of the long-term is actually going to cause me to get stronger, be more productive, and be happier.

So the second you start zoning in on these tiny, tiny events is the second you lose the context of the entire situation.

The same thing is going to happen with you when you're building your company or it’s already happening with you in your company.

Something that I hear all that time is, "that meeting was horrible" or “I can't handle this employee anymore because this last conversation I just had with them”

But then you zoom out and you say, well, why did I hire the employee? And maybe the answer is you couldn't afford the best hire at the time, or maybe that's what you needed at the time, but now you need something else.

Or, maybe they're just a really good person and they're having a bad time in their life. Maybe they’re a little bit depressed and need to talk to a therapist. Maybe you have lost sight of your vision and they're upset about that - and you're feeling their frustration about you not being on top of the ball.

You have to zoom out to the entire experience to understand exactly what's happening, and you'll start realizing it's part of a much, much bigger system that you don't have that much control over, which is totally okay. And then the happiness will start coming back.

So events versus experiences is a really, really important concept that people forget about, especially when they're stuck in that event-driven zone.

As you go through life or go through building your business, putting everything in a larger context is what's going to keep you sane, happy, results-oriented, and at the end of the day, successful.

There's a concept that we promote a lot, which is what we call Startup Serenity. We don't want founders to be running left and right, staying up until four or five in the morning, not sleeping, not taking care of themselves, not eating, doing all these things that are really bad for them because of certain events that happen in their lives. We want them to have a fantastic experience of building their company, of spending time with their family, of everything that goes into what life really is versus just the small, small events that happen.

I’ll be posting a part II about Startup Serenity, so keep an eye out for that, but until then take those events, zoom them out to experiences and you'll feel a lot better and get more results in your life.