Outcome or Process, Where to Focus

Outcome – in the form of goals –  was the focus of every bit of self-help learning I read about, watched, listened to, inhaled or otherwise absorbed from my early twenties. 

That focus on goals became my fixation. I did all the right things, lists of weekly, monthly, yearly and lifetime goals. Lists typed in large letters and pinned to my office notice board. Goals listed on pages in plastic sleeves in folders, lists on post-it notes on mirrors, on computer monitors.

At times I adopted the affirmation idea like a religious mantra. Telling myself every morning that I already had x 000 dollars in the bank, the farm of my dreams. All the while knowing that I was fooling myself. Affirmations do work but not the way they are mostly promoted, more on that later.

When I discovered the magic of the Internet and that a middle-aged farmer from Africa could publish his thoughts on his own blog, I wrote about goals. In the 8 years and 647 blog posts since I started this blog, one of the most popular posts  is  6 Key Values for Achieving Goals

That post has had 2317 views since it was published on 11 June 2012. That shows how often Google and other search engines are used to find articles about goals. Most people are focused on the  outcome not the process or the journey.

Of interest and some perverse amusement is the fact that my most popular post is Grabbing a Cobra by The Tail this post has nothing to do with goals at all but perhaps 3230 readers wanted to know the outcome of my encounter with a cobra.

Six years later, I still believe these 6 values are key in achieving goals:

1. Belief  Without it we are non-starters.
2. Focus  Think of a racehorse leading the Kentucky Derby, it does not think about the weather, the economy, politics or what car its neighbour is driving. Every ounce of its energy is focused on keeping its nose if front of its nearest rival. Absolute focus on the few activities that will move us forward is critical.
3. Determination Goes without saying that without it we will not succeed.
4. Persistence   Do the same steps tomorrow as we did today, and the next day until we succeed.
5. PerseveranceThe strength to keep on keeping on, every day no matter what.
6. Resilience  The ability to pick ourselves up when the wheels fall off and start again.

What’s wrong with setting a goal or expecting an outcome?

Nothing, goals and outcomes are important. Without goals how do we know where we are going. Generally, when we get in a car, on a train or in a plane, we have a destination in mind. Our journey through life should also have destinations in the form of goals.

If they are important, why do many people, myself included, find setting goals and constantly convincing ourselves that by setting them we will automatically achieve them, counter-productive?

Because that causes us to focus on the outcome and not the process of working to achieve them. Or the journey towards them.

My best personal example.

When I set a goal of completing an 85km (50 mile) ultra-marathon, I did not write it down. I didn’t need to, I was so committed to it that it was burned into my brain. Instead I set weekly training targets in the certainty that if I did the work, followed the training programme for a year, I would succeed.

I focused on the process, enjoyed the journey – with all its pain, blisters and tests of my endurance.

Here’s the story of that journey and another on how to conquer the urge to quit.

Since then, I have continued to set goals but I spend more time enjoying the journey each day, focusing on the work that needs doing. Not the goal itself.

My experience and that of many others is that if we focus on the outcome and not the process or doing the work needed to achieve our goal, we are setting ourselves up for failure.

Here is a link to an article by Anthony Moore in Medium that explains why: 

Ordinary People Focus on the Outcome. Extraordinary People Focus On the Process.

Affirmations and outcomes

My experience has been that affirmations in the form of “I have a new BMW” or “I have $1 million” do not work. I just have to look out my window or at my bank statement to know they are not true. My mind tells me I am trying to fool myself and it is not going to play that game.

What does work is to tell myself that “I am good enough to write a book”, I do have the perseverance to run a marathon”. Or “I do have the discipline to train every day”. I  find those types of affirmations work.

At my age, I am no longer concerned about what I look like, or whether others think I am politically correct – I am not. So I don’t need to tell myself that I am good looking, popular or one of the herd. Others do, if they work for you, use them.

Conclusion

Goals are important as targets. The process, doing the work, the daily grind, as best we can and enjoying it is the essential part.

Affirmations are good if used wisely to help us feel better about our abilities, and character. Most of us don’t successfully use them to fool ourselves into thinking we have material things we know we don’t.

How do you use goals and affirmations? Do you enjoy the journey?

Leave a comment.

p.s. Now that I am getting used to this Gutenberg editor (and it has just been updated) I like it.