The reality of un-intended consequences

“I did everything I could, just to get the required result, but it just didn’t happen”.

“It was a text-book execution, I wonder what happened”.

And so on.

People often share such feedback. Many such experiences often lead to disappointment, loss of confidence, drop in self-belief, and even depression. Worse case scenario – some even think of themselves as a failure.

How and Why to prevent or avoid the above in our lives – here’s a perspective.

Over the years since childhood, when by a lake or river, many would have started with picking up a stone and throwing it across the water. One throw would lead to another, and soon one would try to throw the stone with varying force, or at different angles, just to get a desired ripple, or to get multiple ripples as one attempted to get the stone bouncing across the water. And spend a lot of time doing that. Competing with others would add to the fun. But in almost all attempts, one would never get the desired surface ripple.

Many people in life also spend a lot of time, effort, and emotion in carrying out various activities or tasks just to get a desired result or output. Every effort is spent in trying to get the perfect result. And more often than not, it does not happen.

Why? Because the result is the focus. The mindset is “if I do this, then that will happen; and then if I do that, then this will be the result”; or something similar.

So what is going wrong? If all actions are taken with the objective in mind, then why is the result so evasive?

Again, because the result is the focus.

Let’s go back to the throwing of the stone in water. We try to throw the stone to get a desired ripple. We see the ripples on the surface. We do not see the ripples as the stone goes down in the water. As the stone keeps going deeper into the water, it keeps creating ripples that we do not see. These also have an impact on the surface ripples. So we don’t get the desired surface ripple. And since we don’t see the ripples below the surface, we keep wondering what’s going wrong with our throw!

So how can we influence what we cannot see. We can’t. But we have to understand that, like the stone that we throw in the water, every action of ours will have consequences. Which we may not be able to predict.

Let’s call it “The Reality of Unintended Consequences”.

Every action we take is like that stone falling through water. We’ll drive ourselves crazy if we try and figure out every consequence of the action. We may not even be able to fathom to whom all or in what way the action will have an impact.

So what do we do? Does it mean we have complete disregard for the objective?

Absolutely not! We know what is required. Like we know we have to throw the stone, we know what action we need to take. But instead of focusing on getting the result, the focus should be on the effort. The effort should be to the best of one’s capability using all of one’s knowledge and experience. And let the result happen.

Sounds Familiar?

(this was shared on LinkedIn in 2019)