We all have things we want to achieve in life: completing an epic fitness challenge, getting into better shape, making President’s Club, building a successful business, writing a book, and so on. The path to achieving these objectives starts by setting a specific and actionable goal. I used to focus mainly on setting goals for my career, health, and other areas, but I did not put much focus or emphasis on the actual process of achieving those goals. Last week I hope I convinced you that there is a much better way of doing things than simply setting goals. It all comes down to the difference between focusing on an end goal and focusing on a process.
Once you start the pursuit of a goal, how do you ensure that you finish? To be sure, starting is crucial. But, once past the starting line, the more important thing quickly becomes how we set ourselves up to actually finish and succeed. We expect to achieve ridiculous outcomes in record amounts of time—and when this doesn’t happen, we lose momentum. We give up. We quit. Believe me, when it comes to unmet expectations, I’ve been as guilty as anyone.
This week I’d like us to nail down exactly how we can focus on the ongoing process over the initial goal. Here is what I suggest:
1. Identify your long-term goal and a “higher power reason” for your goal.
It’s absolutely pointless to have a goal if your goal doesn’t have a “higher power reason”—a driving force that means something to you personally and motivates you day after day after day.
Some may disagree with me, but I believe that making money is not an adequate “why” reason. Making money is a result. Look at any highly successful person who has made a lot of money. Most of the time, money was never his or her primary motivator. For example, listen to this quote by Mark Zuckerberg regarding his motivation for creating Facebook: “My goal was never to just create a company. A lot of people misinterpret that, as if I don’t care about revenue or profit or any of those things. Ultimately what not being just a company means to me, is just not being just that—building something that actually makes a really big change in the world.”
For really successful people, it’s not what they did, it’s why they did it—and then money often came as a result. In other words, don’t pursue the rewards directly; instead, focus on the process with diligence and let the outcome take care of itself.
2. Identify an executable process that has been proven to consistently obtain your desired long-term results.
This point embodies why I am such a big believer in surrounding ourselves with passionate people and finding the right role models. Renowned business philosopher Jim Rohn researched the “Law of Attractions,” which suggests that we are all a direct reflection of the five people we associate with the most. The way we walk, talk, think, dress, make money, manage our health, accomplish goals, and develop values will naturally mirror those five people. So go out and find someone who has done what you want to do. Deconstruct what they did and how they did it and then create a process based on what you learn. Most important, cling to an attitude of complete confidence that the process will yield results over time. If you don’t fully believe in your process, then you’ll give up at the most crucial times. Commit to an executable process you believe in.
3. Control what you can control.
Most things are out of our control, so learn what you can control and what you cannot. For example:
- We cannot totally control losing 50 pounds in a year, but we can decide how we eat and how much we exercise every day.
- We cannot control how many products we sell in a month, but we can control our sales process and the number of sales calls we make each day.
- I cannot control how many new subscribers to my blog I receive in a month, but I can decide to consistently write my very best every week and produce useful content for my readers.
Measure each day’s success by how well you stayed true to your process. I’m currently training for a 100-mile mountain bike race, and every week I receive my workout schedule from my coach. Some weeks, the workout plan seems daunting, but I know that if I just follow the process and take it one workout at a time, come August 9, I’ll be ready to race, and race well. I’m trusting in the process.
When you commit to work hard and then execute your process, make sure to celebrate your victories, no matter how big or small. Whoever said that “dedication to a process is what moves mountains” spoke with wisdom.
Measure what you can control. Embrace the process. The rest will follow.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve written about sticking to a process versus focusing on an end goal. I do not want to leave you with the impression that goals are ineffective. I’ve found that goals are good for planning our progress while following a process is good for actually making progress. I would like to leave you with a final quote by famed driver Mario Andretti as you all commit yourselves to your individual processes: “Desire is the key to motivation, but it’s determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal—a commitment to excellence—that will enable you to attain the success you seek.”
