Process Over Results

Too many people worry about what they want in life, and tend to forget that there’s a long a treacherous path to achieve it.

Let me first preface by saying that setting goals and striving to achieve them is an absolutely excellent mindset. Without a clear vision as to what you wish to achieve, then there’s no reason to alter your path. Without a goal in sight, it is very difficult to know if what you’re doing is putting you on the right trajectory.

However, what I AM saying is that without the right process and approach, the goal may never be attainable. Let me explain:

How do you think high-end athletes prepare for a game?

How do you think some of the best minds made such great discoveries?

How do you think some of the most successful people made their millions?

How do you think people can recover from failure?

Process.

What makes the process so crucial is because it will be the stage in life that you spend the most time in, hence the term “enjoy the process”. You will spend more of your life in the process of success than actually succeeding. Take Thomas Edison for example, the guy who invented the lightbulb. For those that don’t know, Edison was also less famously known for fucking up about 10,000 lightbulb inventions. What did he say? “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” However, we know him as the inventor of the lighbulb.

You think he ever hated the process? Maybe sometimes, but not nearly as much as he enjoyed the fact that he knew he was getting closer to that one successful light bulb.

What’s my point in this?

Routine. Review. Revise. Repeat.

Your process should constantly improve. Whether that’s a better workout to get the most out of you. A better study schedule. A better sleep schedule. A more efficient diet. A more thought-provoking book. A more challenging course. As long as you continue to improve your process, success will come.

Now I talk about “Process Process Process”, but what truly is a process?

A process is simply a series of steps in order to achieve a particular goal.

This is why I started by reiterating that having goals is still crucial towards achievement. Implement a series of steps that you believe will take you to your personal goal. Indulge in that series of steps, and then after a week, month, year, review your progress. Are you smarter? Are you stronger? Are you closer to making that million dollars? Is there a clear boundary of progress being made, or do I need to change my series of steps?

This alone takes time, dedication, and discipline - a few topics I may discuss later.

To close this out, I want to give a few helpful tips in to how to achieve a good process, and these are some tips I got from the book “S.M.A.R.T. Goals Made Simple” by S.J. Scott:

• Make them Specific. Rather than say “I want to workout”, say “I want to lose 10 pounds in 2 months”.
• Make them Measurable. Staying on the topic of weight loss, weigh yourself each week and track your progress.
• Make them Attainable. AKA, don’t say 50 pounds in 2 weeks, make it something that is slightly challenging but not outright unattainable
• Make them Relevant. This is a crucial part because if you don’t have a true reason as to why you’re achieving the particular goal, then achieving it is truly for nothing.
• Timely. Have a start and an end. Example: having the goal be lose 10 pounds from tomorrow until two months later

By taking these tips, you can supply yourself with a good foundation for routine. Get up, make a workout, eat better to refuel your body, weigh yourself every week, and keep up. If you’re not losing weight, revise. If you are, great! By the end of the two months, you will be so enthralled in the process of losing weight and seeing those achievements, that you’ll want to continue, and by simply enjoying working out and eating better, you’ll achieve more than you had initially thought.

Enjoy the process, and the results will flourish. Worry about the results, and you will never achieve a long-lasting fulfillment of a proper process.

Life is about learning. Be a student forever, and you will forever grow.

Quote: “The whole of life, from the moment you are born to the moment you die, is a process of learning.”—Jiddu Krishnamurti