500 Words a Week - Process > Result
“To crave the result but not the process is to guarantee disappointment.”
A quote from James Clear from his weekly newsletter that stood out to me this week. We all have our goals, things we want to achieve and accomplish. Sometimes we let these blind us from the process. The process we are going through or have gone through. We have our mind so fixated on that ultimate outcome, that we never look at how far we have come. We never look at how much we have developed, we only look at what we want to achieve causing feelings of “will I ever get there” to arise. We forget how a few years ago, we thought we’d never be where we are now.
We never appreciated the day-to-day life we are going through, as all we are seeing it as is a steppingstone for us to go and achieve that which we most want. Ridding us of any form of happiness or contentment.
We get caught up in this cycle. Like a horse with blinders on, unable to view whats going on around us, only able to see to next thing on the path. Sometimes we need to take the blinders off, take in the sights around us, and appreciate the path leading us to where we want to go.
Ultimately, worrying about the future and having clearly defined goals to achieve could be harmful. We may never get there, we may change our mind, external circumstances might alter our path. We’ve then spent a certain amount of time so fixated on achieving one thing, never appreciating the process because of how focused we were, missing everything that’s going on around us, for what?
If we think of this like a road trip, half the fun is in the trip rather than reaching the destination. Continuing the thread of a road trip, this is something that we can frequently get wrong about the process. On a road trip, we regularly allow ourselves breaks. Breaks to get out of the car and stretch our legs, to get some food, to unwind a little. When it comes to the process, we also need to allow ourselves these affordances. These breaks when we allow ourselves time to rest and recuperate before getting back on the path.
Another thing relating to road trips that we need to incorporate in the process of trying to achieve anything, is that it’s not always going to be smooth sailing. We might hit traffic, we might take a wrong turn here or there, but we don’t panic. Sure, we may have added time to the journey, but we will get back on the path towards the destination. Also, upon our road trip, we might want to take a different detour, to explore another area, to satisfy our curiosity. We can allow ourselves some flexibility. Sometimes this might lead us down a completely different path, to something we would never have thought of.
