What to Do When Your Process Doesn’t Produce the Outcome You Want
I don’t make it a secret that I’m a process guy. Focusing on the process is an internal mindset that eliminates the ability to make excuses for external outcomes.
Obviously, having a process mindset is not unique. Almost every sports psychologist, self-help guru, or coach will tell you that a process mindset is superior to an outcome mindset. In sports and in life, progress happens in the present. Moreover, process is about the present and outcomes are about the future. Therefore, it’s almost a no brainer to encourage (if not demand) those struggling to make progress to focus on the process above all other things.
However, what is often lost in this advice is how to deal with the dilemma of a failed process. Telling someone struggling to focus on the process when that’s what there already doing is counterproductive. What’s worse, is to tell that struggling person to simply trust the process. What evidence do they have to trust a process that’s not producing the outcomes they want?
When a process person is struggling, trust is critical, but not trust in the process. Instead, it’s trusting oneself. Unquestionably, there is a good chance that the reason the process isn’t working is because the process doesn’t work. It’s a fact that every process doesn’t work for everyone every time.
So, instead of just trusting the process when it isn’t producing the outcomes you want, you must trust yourself to verify the process. This means building into the process a means to track and analyze progress and believing the results. Without the ability to track and analyze progress, your trust is a blind trust. Besides, if you only trust with no verification, then you will rob yourself of the ability to adjust the process to make it more effective and efficient.
Simply stated, when a process isn’t working you must trust yourself enough to adjust it.