The Hallway Effect
Why a result is not the real result
In our ambitious creative endeavors, side hustles, or dream projects, we often find ourselves fixated on outcomes. When that happens, progress slows, and more often than not, dropped altogether.
So, I’ve come up with a framework that, over the years, has helped me break this fixation. See if it helps you too.
Many years back — I received an email from journalist Neil Strauss, author of numerous best-selling books, that hit me between the eyes it was so good. The gist of the message?
Your result, in anything you do, is not a final result.
Let me explain as he did, and maybe elaborate a bit.
The ultimate outcome of whatever you are doing is going to be different than your planned outcome.
We’re conditioned goal chasers. We have very concrete objectives in everything we do. We want our project to succeed — we have a ton of expectations.
But what happens when things don’t go as planned? Even small setbacks leave us annoyed or super stressed. We have literal fear reactions like freezing in place or procrastinating
So let’s take the pressure off.
The result of any project working on is not a real endpoint anyway. The outcome of a project or life event just opens up a new door, a new path, it leads to change.
And whether the project succeeds or fails by your standards doesn’t matter. It still just leads you to the next event in your life.
Each result in your life is just a fork on a path that is endlessly forking.
It is impossible to predict where it’s all leading.
The hallway effect.
So here’s the framework. Imagine your journey as walking down a hallway. This hallway is lined with doors on either side. Each door represents a potential opportunity or learning experience. However, these doors are never known to you unless you take the first step and start moving forward down the hallway.
The point here is that moving forward — gets you potentially more doors.
It’s not about being certain you’re in the right hallway, or knowing which doors you want presented beforehand; it’s about letting go of the need for certainty.
The process of action itself will present opportunities as you progress.
Good, bad, who knows?
Every outcome you can imagine is beyond your control. Note that “fortune telling” is classified as a cognitive distortion associated with depression and anxiety. So stop.
Dive into the project that excites you the most.
Let me do for you what Neil did for me; I’m relieving you of any fretting you have about your capabilities, the possibility of success or failure, and whatever the outcome may be.
Just do your best, and by “best” I mean based on your messy, worried, imperfect self today.
When it comes to projects, stumbling forward is better than standing still.
A hallway is better than a chair.
Now, go do — but know it’s not something that will necessarily define your life.
There will always be more projects — and more outcomes, ahead.
