Adopting a Mindset to Enjoy the Process When Pursuing a Difficult Goal
There is a great quote in one of my favorite books, Flow in Sports, that provides the perfect illustration of a common mindset mistake people make when they fail to enjoy the process when pursuing a difficult goal.
It’s not that we fail to stop and smell the roses. Often we even fail to notice they are there.
Pursuing a difficult goal is (dare I say it) difficult. By my calculations, 99% of people will fail to achieve a difficult goal in their lifetime. To be clear, a difficult goal by my definition is a long-term goal that requires a minimum of 4 years effort. This is a long time, and as a result most people fail to achieve these types of goals.
When someone starts on the journey to pursue a difficult goal, there is normally an understanding that the journey is hard. Most people accept that success won’t happen overnight. However, even in knowing this, most people still don’t adopt the mindset they need for success.
So instead of enjoying the journey, they pursue their difficult goal with the mindset of trying to shortcut the process. This means they push themselves to burnout or even worse, they attempt to cheat the process. Either way is a recipe for failure.
The fact of the matter is the best way to pursue a difficult goal is by approaching the journey with a mindset that gives you the greatest chance for success. This mindset is adopted by doing the following three things.
1) Make the Process the Goal, and the Goal the Compass
When the process is the goal, then achieving your goal is 100% within your control. By having complete control of your success or failure, you eliminate all external excuses. What’s more, when the process is the goal you can regularly measure progress, success, or failure by your ability to stay on track following the process.
2) Make Time for Your Goals Every Single Day
People fail to achieve difficult goals not because of the goal itself. Instead, it’s because of how they prioritize their time. A goal is about the future, a priority is about the present. If these two are not linked, then the chance of achieving a difficult goal is slim. Daily priorities must include working on difficult goals. A difficult goal is not something you work on once a week, once a month, or whenever you feel like it. If a goal is truly difficult, it’s something one must make time for every single day.
3) Use a Goal Progression to Enjoy the Process
A goal progression is the process of moving gradually towards a more advanced state. Defining a goal progression is no different than defining a progression for a physical activity. When you define the progression for a physical activity, you must first break down the athletic skills and muscle groups that need development. Once you identify that, you then develop a daily routine around developing those skills and / or muscle groups. This routine must include tracking the consistency streaks, measuring the progression, and making adjustments.
Then, every time you graduate to the next step in the progression, it serves as the compass for verifying you’re moving in the direction of progress. Moreover, these progression steps become the roses you can see, as well as take time to stop and smell by celebrating on the way to your destination. This is ultimately what leads to the mindset you need to enjoy the process.