Inputs over Outcome

For the last 8 years, we have published over 2,000 videos on Youtube. And since we started posting daily content, we rarely miss a day. Monday through Sunday, every week, every month, every year.

4 Million Subscribers and half a billion views later, we are still doing it. Even when people from our team are away, like the Alux Lady was away for the past couple of days we are still religious about it. Why? Because we know the value of inputs over outcomes. Our goal and mission shifted through the years, but the input always stayed the same. We will discuss Inputs over Outcome

You see, if you want to get anything done, from buying your dream home to educating 1 billion people, there is one vital thing to remember.
Always focus on the inputs. The activities that make the goal happen. The goal can be flexible – it can change, it can get bigger or smaller – or it can move to an entirely new direction…. But the input must always stay the same.

In this video, we talk about why this mentality is so important and how to apply it in your own life. Welcome to Alux. If you don’t feel like reading the article here’s the video version:

If you want to make money, what do you do?

Well, we can tell you what not to do. You don’t focus on the money. You focus on the things that make money. This may sound obvious to some and confusing to others, so let’s dive deeper. Money is not a problem not when you have a lot of it, but when you have something that makes it.
That’s why 70% of lottery winners eventually go broke. They have the money, but they don’t have the thing that makes it. They have the outcome without the input. It’s an equation destined to fail.
They end up spending all the money in a couple of years and have no way to make it back.
They are lacking the input to make that outcome.

Statistically speaking, if someone gives you right now $1 Million, you are more likely to die broke than rich. Think about how wild that is. You might say “how is that even possible, that’s enough money to last a lifetime”. That may be true, but the lottery winners said the same thing and look at them now.
And if you think that’s a bit of a stretch, let’s look at another scenario.

Let’s say tomorrow when you wake up, you have the body of a Greek God/Goddess. How long do you think it will take for you to revert back to your initial form? Because you are currently lacking the discipline to get that kind of body.
We give you 6 to 12 months.
The outcome is never the problem. Winners and losers have the same goals after all.It’s not like anyone wishes for a worse life. So does that mean you should ignore goals all together?

Of course not, but you are using goal setting the wrong way. Most people set goals for themselves to make them feel better.

When you say these things, it makes you feel special. Like half the work is already done. You cannot wait for people to ask you what you’re doing so you can nonchalantly say:
“Oh I’m just busy building my empire” But smart people know that’s not how goals work.

Instead, they have 2 purposes:

To remind you what you are working for
Because everyone needs a little reminder sometimes.

Not every day is special, not every hour productive.

You can even have entire weeks where you feel like you’re not going anywhere. That’s why it’s important to remember what you are actually working towards. You need that extra boost of motivation.

To help you figure out your general direction. The second purpose of a goal is to give you an endpoint so you can go in reverse. People don’t know where to start because they don’t know where they want to end up.

If you want to buy a house in cash by 30 and you’re 27 now, that gives you 3 years to make whatever the house costs. You get a starting point.

But that’s all the goal does. It shows you a possibility.
It helps you imagine what your life could look like, if you put in the work.
It’s more like day dreaming with a realistic chance of happening.
But you are smart and you know that having goals alone won’t get you anywhere.
You know you’ve got to put in the work.
But this “work” thing can be so many things.
What does “work” actually mean?
How can you know when you are working versus when you are just busy.
Enter what we call “inputs”.

We define “inputs” as a special type of work that anyone can do in any given circumstance.
This work has a series of traits:

It’s binary, meaning you either did it or not.

There is no in between. You can’t half ass this. The reason you want this to have a starting point and an ending point is to avoid “just being busy”. It needs to be clear how it starts and how it ends. It’s a complete process.

Let’s say you are a content creator and want to build up your audience.
You can’t kinda publish something. You either do it or you don’t.
If you don’t have an ending point where the input is complete, it’s easy to fall into the trap of pretending to work, or leaving things for tomorrow.

It’s based on a clearly defined process.

You need to design a protocol, or a process on which the input is based.
Our scripts follow a certain formula, our thumbnails have a certain aesthetic and so on.
You must figure out your way of doing things and stick to it.
The reason why this is important is because you don’t want to reinvent the wheel every single day. It’s just not scalable.
If you have to wonder what you need to work on in a given day, you are lacking a process.
Let’s take writing for example.
Writing is hard for a lot of people, including us.
But we always follow the same process, to make things easier.
You start writing without stopping, and edit afterwards.
Ideas will eventually start to connect.
This is the same for a lot of other industries. Everything has a process behind it.
If you are stuck looking at an empty google doc, or photoshop page, or landing page or you name it, you are lacking process.

It has a clearly defined purpose.

You are not doing it for the sake of doing it.
It must have a clear function.
It needs to be measured, analized and put into perspective.
If not, you again fall into the trap of just being busy.
To know if your input has a purpose or not, ask yourself this. And be brutally honest:
“Is doing this getting you a bit closer to your goal?”
If the answer is anything else then “yes”, you need to rethink it.
This forces you to stay away from things that feel good but ultimately don’t provide value in the long run.
Think about your work. There are probably parts of it that feel good.

You enjoy doing them… but they might not be that important. It’s painful to toss them aside or to delegate them.

But if you want to get closer to your goals, you need to give up some control and focus on the work that benefits the most from your input.

We know someone who owns a software company.

He enjoys tinkering with little things and getting involved in every single project.

But ultimately, that turned him into an employee in his own company, rather than the CEO.

And the company suffers. That’s why choosing the right input is important.

It’s schedule, daily

The input happens every day, religiously. There is no skipping it.
It’s the most important thing you must do.
This is the part where most people fail to stick with.
Eventually, doing the input every single day gets repetitive and boring.
Especially since you will not see any significant outcome any time soon.
But it’s crucial to stick to it.
We barely got any views in the first 3 years on Youtube.
But eventually, the outcome will happen.
You must stick to it and trust the process.
On top of this, there is another side effect that makes inputs so powerful.
When you focus on these kinds of activities, you build discipline and patience.
Any person that possesses these two traits is essentially unstoppable.
Once you develop this type of routine, your goals don’t matter.

You just set up to achieve whatever you want because the person you’ve now become is capable and ready. We hope you found some value in this video Aluxers! As a thank you for sticking with us until the end, we have a bonus for you.

Homework

Yes, you’re going back to school. Take a piece of paper and write 3 inputs.
Remember that inputs are actionable, physical things you sit down and do.
It’s not thinking, debating, making notes and plans. This is actual work.
For the rest of this year, you will do these 3 inputs daily.
It doesn’t matter if it rains, if you’re tired, if you’re not in the mood, if you haven’t slept that well, if you are busy with other stuff.
You will do those 3 inputs, every day, religiously, to full completion.
We promise you, you will be a different person by the end of the year.
If you are ready to take on this challenge, write “inputs over outcome” in the comments and we’ll see who the true Aluxers are.