Focusing on the process vs the outcomes

Seeing the Forrest from the Trees

“You’ll hate it if all you care about is the outcome…”

I first showed an interest in the outdoors and hunting many years ago. This was a tip given to me by a man who grew up in the woods, hunted since he could walk, and had spent nearly 50 years as a logger in the mountains of Eastern Oregon. This many is also my father-in-law.

This memory is fairly fresh in my head after spending a weekend in the mountains by myself thinking “what am I doing here? I’d rather be ______.” I found myself asking why I was so unsettled in a place I spend most of my year looking forward to being. It was because the outcome hadn’t been at all what I wanted, expected, or anticipated.

My father-in-law, Joe, was right- “you’ll hate it if you just focus on the outcome…”

I’ve not found many metaphors to parallel training, weight loss, and virtually any habit change.

“…focus only on the outcome and you’ll hate it…”

There’s a wide span of folks in this group.

• Some are on the verge of graduating after a successful maintenance phase.

• Some are just starting and dreaming of the day they hit maintenance.

• Others have been in it a while and just waiting for that goal number to pop up.

• Some are still zealous and excited just starting out

And others still have probably started- or will soon start- focusing just on the outcome and forget about loving the process.

I’ll encourage you like I did myself: Stop. Take a minute to see the forest from the trees (both literally and figuratively in my case). The thing you’ll remember most about this phase is the journey….not the weekly outcomes.

The good news- and what I’ll leave you with- is this: the outcomes are inevitable if you just keep loving the process.