“I hope this works out.”
“I just want to be successful.”
“I need to be good at this.”
Whether you’re starting a new role, building a business, or going after a big goal, these thoughts are familiar. Most of us spend a lot of time thinking about how things will turn out. We imagine the dream job offer, the glowing feedback, the fully booked calendar. We fixate on the finish line—often without realizing how little control we have over it.
This isn’t a flaw in your thinking—it’s human nature. But when your focus stays locked on outcomes, it creates a constant undercurrent of pressure. The more you try to control how things turn out, the more overwhelmed and anxious you become.
At Mind Growth Lab, one of the most effective mindset shifts we teach is this: focus on inputs, not outputs.
What are Inputs and Outputs?
Let’s break it down:
- Inputs are the actions, habits and decisions that are fully within your control–like how you show up, how you prepare, how you manage your time, and how you engage with your work.
- Outputs are the results or outcomes of actions that are often dependent on external factors, such as promotions, praise, success metrics, or financial gains.
The key difference? Control.
You have control over what you put into something, but not always what you get out of it. Focusing on inputs helps you build real momentum and resilience. Focusing on outputs keeps you chasing something uncertain, often at the expense of your mental clarity, confidence, and consistency.
The Cost of Focusing on Outputs
When your mind stays on vague results—like “I want to succeed” or “I hope this turns out okay”—you create friction. You get stuck in a cycle of hoping, overthinking, and second-guessing instead of taking the actions that actually move you forward.
Here’s how that plays out:
- Overwhelm: Strictly focusing on outputs can create a confusion with where to start, since there are so many steps to get to the end goal. It can be paralyzing and prevent you from even starting.
- Procrastination: The fear of not doing something perfectly can lead to avoiding it altogether. You focus so much on the final product that you delay the first step.
- Chronic Stress: The constant pressure of focusing on what you cannot control, mixed with the daunting unknown, keeps your nervous system on high alert. This pressure builds over time and can lead to mental fatigue, burnout, and even physical symptoms.
We see this often in perfectionists and high-performers—people who set incredibly high standards but measure their worth only by the outcomes. That’s a fast track to burnout.
Why Inputs Work (and Why They Matter More)
When you shift your attention to your inputs, something powerful happens: you take your power back.
From a performance psychology lens, focusing on inputs improves your brain’s executive functioning (part of the brain responsible for minimizing distractions, leading to work disruption). Anxiety and uncertainty hijack your attention and disrupt focus. But when you zero in on what’s within your control, you build emotional regulation, reduce stress, and increase clarity.
For example:
When training for a marathon, focusing on inputs is what gets the job done–not just hoping you can run so many miles in a certain time. You focus on daily runs, proper hydration, nutrition, and sleep, and regularly engage in mobility and strength training. Your inputs prepare your body and build confidence to make sure you are ready for the race to the best of your ability. But if you only stress about your race time or placement (the output), you lose sight of what actually helps you improve—and may even sabotage your progress.
It’s about knowing you put in everything within your control to ensure the outcome you want, but detaching from the outcome and instead trusting that your efforts were enough.
This same principle applies to business, leadership, or career growth. Daily inputs create long-term success.
Build Systems, Not Just Expectations
Clear and consistent inputs form systems that generate momentum. Inputs become an established and predictable process, routine building maximizing efficiency while also lowering the mental load. The use of a SMART goal setting system helps create consistency that encourages habitual application.
SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound. The SMART goal system allows one to focus on inputs specifically in a way that encourages growth and consistent progress. It breaks the input into something achievable and places a time expectation on it, turning the goal into something you cannot procrastinate. Utilizing this goal system creates a habit, the routine becoming second nature, allowing faster execution and more efficient workflows.
Mindset Reframe
It's important to recalibrate your perspective on goals, shifting from an obsession with results to a focus on your effort and process instead. A focus on effort encourages the development of a growth-mindset, which will lead to better performance and feeling more fulfilled.
Growth-mindset is the belief that abilities and intelligence can be developed through effort and dedication. A paper on academic tenacity by Carol S. Dweck demonstrated that students with a growth-mindset consistently outperformed those with a fixed mindset, and were more likely to challenge themselves and achieve more. This mindset is extremely powerful, increasing persistence in the face of setbacks and embracing of challenges, applicable for both students and those in business.
Daily Inputs
An easy way to apply inputs into your life is by implementing them everyday, creating a rule that will keep you on track and will shift your mindset to better accomplish your goals.
1-3-5 rule: This rule encourages productivity in just a few steps. You create a daily plan to accomplish one major task, three medium tasks and five small tasks. This creates a focus on what you are putting into each project, helping you accomplish more without becoming overwhelmed by an end goal.
Need support in shifting to an input focused mindset? Mind Growth Lab Coaches can help.
