The law of un-expected benefits

Photo by Andrew Spencer on Unsplash

Things rarely work out perfectly to plan. 

And often they end up way better - if you open your eyes.

I doubt that Sergey & Larry expected their research library project to become a corporate behemoth. 

Likewise Mark’s digital replacement for paper lists has leapfrogged his original plan. 

And the digital sales of books - cloud services wasn’t on Jeff’s roadmap. 

These are the big upsides of taking action. Risky but focused action. Those actions lead to unexpected benefits.

Anyone can take action. 

It’s not like we have big impediments to learning Salesforce or Swift code, getting exercise, starting an ecommerce site, or even planting a garden. Access is almost everywhere and the places it isn’t available are shrinking every day. The more you do, the bigger the opportunities available to you and the bigger your potential benefits become. 

Being in the action is actually a huge win. 

Whether you do the action for the end goal or for the enjoyment of the process or for camaraderie with a community - doing the action is always the path to goals, success, and those unexpected benefits. Even if the action doesn’t go huge, you are always learning. 

Mechanicing taught me the basics for plumbing, tile, sheetrock, and home electrical. 

More importantly, the problem solving skills also translated to coding software, product design, and marketing. That’s a huge benefit set from a career path that lasted 7 years. Mechanicing also gives me the freedom to work on project cars with my kids - major parenting win. 

I made a commitment in college to stay fit forever. 

That meant regular exercise and eating well daily. I’m not maniacal about my practice but the results are  huge. My Dr loves my blood work, lack of medical issues, and resting pulse. I love that I feel 30 years younger than my calendar age. Major unexpected benefit, my exercise and diet feed my brain chemistry and make mental wellness easier. 

When we talk about self awareness as foundational for preventative mental wellness and Social Emotional Learning - we also mean being able to recognize the unexpected benefits accrued from past and present actions. This is one of those self-teaching opportunities that helps us expand our perspective on what is possible and recognize our own resilience. 

Amazon, Google, and Facebook today are way beyond anything the founders imagined - that’s an unexpected benefit. And taking action was required to get the ball rolling. 

Take action, reap the benefits. 

You got this.