Process

I've chased outcomes for most of my life, and it sucks, here's why.

Initially, the goals are small and easy; progress is made quickly, and we receive immediate feedback about how we're doing. It feels rational then to set a goal, chase it, pick a more challenging goal, and chase the new goal, but it makes life difficult to enjoy day-to-day. After a couple of years, the goals become elusive; moving forward takes significantly more time and effort (and it's less rewarding).

How can we break that cycle?

Through rethinking the relationship we have with results and processes.

Process = "a series of actions or steps taken in order to achieve a particular end."

Process and Habit

A series of steps can be thought about as a habit, a series of habits can be thought about as a process, and a series of processes can be thought about as an outcome.

Let's build a car; how about a Honda Civic? To construct a Honda Civic, we'll need to combine a specific set of components (steps), and those components (steps), when combined, create a sub-assembly (habit). When enough sub-assemblies (habits) are combined, we have an assembly (process). Once we have the right combination of assemblies (process), we can produce a Honda Civic (outcome).

What if we wanted to build a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket? To make a rocket, we'll need a different grouping of components (steps) that will constitute our new sub-assemblies (habits) that will combine into our Falcon 9 assemblies (processes), which will lead us to the finished Falcon 9 rocket (outcome).

Each outcome follows a similar formula: determine the process that will take you to the goal, and then practice the necessary steps to develop the habits that create that process. Most processes are similar, but can have vastly different results with minor tweaks. When this becomes integrated into your personality, achieving goals becomes a matter of time rather than luck. Specific outcomes require specific processes.

If you can observe it, you can influence it, and what you can measure can be managed.

Think about the mighty bicycle (as a process); it would be excellent for a nice ride down the coast (ideal use) but very difficult to cross an ocean with (less ideal use). In contrast, the Airbus A380 (as a process) [the world's largest passenger aircraft] would be highly suited for transporting many people and their cargo across continents (ideal use); it would make for a terribly inconvenient beach cruiser (less ideal use).

Awareness of our process is critical. If we decide not to evaluate our processes, they'll still take you somewhere, don't worry, but it might not be somewhere you would pick.

What's your style?

Do you carefully chop, organize, and prepare your ingredients before cooking? Or do you tornado your way through the kitchen like the TAZ, the Tasmanian devil from Looney Tunes?

Process is the only interface we have with our goals and ambitions. And the quality of our process solely dictates the quality of our results. The results are an abstraction of all the time and energy dedicated to the cause. Do your processes adapt to your needs? Do they evolve as you do?

Paradox of Process

Here comes the paradox: by designing a process for a desired goal, the process itself gains meaning, not the outcome.

The more we focus on the outcome, the less obtainable it becomes; the more we don't focus on the outcome (while paying attention intently to the process), the more likely we are to achieve our desired results.

The process, in effect, becomes the outcome.

Process is

By energizing our process moment-to-moment, i.e. (writing words each day) vs the ambition (writing an engaging book), we drive forward with compounding velocity, but by focusing on the opposite, we will be left anxious and powerless.

In my experience, the desire to reach a specific outcome too strongly might get me close, but I feel hollow as I leave a trail of destruction behind me in its pursuit.

When approaching this cyclical beast of process and outcome, the best we can do is reach for your goals by loving the moment-to-moment process of moving towards them (without caring if you ever reach them).

Process is not the environment for the result. Process is the result.