Why You Should Value Processes Over Outcomes

My exercise of choice right now is running. I love getting out on a trail and into nature.

I've been running for over a decade and do a vast number of races from "fun runs" to 5Ks and half-marathons. Every year, I set goals: break a 6-minute mile, break 21 minutes in the 5K, or run a 1:45 half-marathon.

And you know what happens every single year? I get disappointed and frustrated. These goals are outcomes I'm shooting for, and this puts pressure on me to hit milestones during training. Some days, I just don't do well. It could be allergies or a thunderstorm or muscle fatigue or poor sleep.

This is the real world — wherein progress varies day-to-day. When I focus on the outcome, I beat myself up and lose motivation. I'm sure you've experienced this as well.

Almost anything worth learning is measured over years. Supposedly, mastery only comes after 10,000 hours. Learning an instrument or language or even starting a business is not a straightforward path. Outcomes are jagged ups and downs.

That's why we should be process-oriented and not outcome-oriented.

Use Goals to Set up Processes

Let's say you set a goal to learn to draw a human head. If you've never tried this, it's remarkably hard. This goal is already a little vague because there isn't a clear, quantifiable way to tell when you've accomplished it.

But it's good enough to set up a process. At first, you could decide to draw a head every day to get a better sense of how to do it. This is a nice process, and presumably, you're doing it because you like to draw.

Enjoy the process. You're getting closer to that goal whether you know it or not.

Maybe you notice the nose always looks strange. Now you set up a process of watching some lectures on drawing the nose. Practice that separately. Aha, now the nose is looking fine, but you realize everything is flat.

This leads you down a journey of learning the forms produced by parts of the skull and muscles of the face. Oh, it's the zygomatic arch that causes the shadow there. We're learning so much along the way. It's a long, unexpected detour but fascinating nonetheless.

This is the benefit of reveling in the process of drawing heads every day rather than focusing on the goal. A goal with a timeframe attached doesn't let us go on these detours and enjoy them.

Most days it's looking a lot better, but somedays it's utterly horrible. No worries! If our measurement of success was to draw an accurate head, then we might get frustrated at these steps backward. But if we forget about the goal and just keep going, we get closer to our original goal without even trying.

Frustrations will make us feel hopeless and possibly even quit.

This isn't unique to the arts. It works for any longterm goal, and it's particularly effective when you know setbacks are inevitable. Lots of people try to get healthy by setting goals like: never eat added sugar.

Notice how terrible that goal is. You can only fail it. There is no such thing as succeeding. Instead, set into motion a process of finding replacements for the foods you know you consume that have added sugar. This is a longterm change, and the process of trying new foods and updating the pantry can be fun.

Maybe it leads you into a detour learning about fermented foods. You start making your own kimchi as a replacement for that afternoon snack. The process of replacing foods has led to a whole new hobby! This would never have happened if you just focused on your (unattainable) goal.

Learning to love the process like this will lead to the outcome you desired all along, but if you cheat once by getting ice cream on your birthday, you haven't failed. You won't get discouraged and quit the goal and then binge.

I even hinted at this with the article Stop Reading 100 Books a Year. The idea is that you'll fall out of love with reading that way and read less. If you start a process of reading every day, you'll naturally increase how much you read. And that was the point of the goal all along.

The Research

A lot of psychological research has been done on this, but we'll just examine a few reasons why valuing the process and ignoring the goals can help you achieve your goals with a higher success rate. I know that sounds paradoxical.

We've already looked at the idea of discouragement by setbacks. Five 2018 experiments show how minor setbacks can cause a cognitive shift that leads to a weakened commitment to a goal or even "taking the off-ramp" as the study calls it. These setbacks are often out of your control.

Another main problem with emphasizing goals over processes is that attaining a goal ends the process. Processes that go on for long enough turn into habits.

A recent study entitled Habit Formation and Behavior Change found that habit formation is better than goal-setting in the long run. When you enjoy the process, it turns into a habit. Habits are things you do automatically.

Chasing a goal requires conscious motivation. Many days you won't have the motivation, and the thought of achieving the goal won't be enough to keep you on the path.

Habits are also important for continuing past goals. If you set a goal to lose 10 pounds, then you might go on a diet until that happens. After achieving the goal, you won't have habits in place to keep the 10 pounds off, and you'll gain it right back.

Another reason to stop focusing on goals is that feedback is easier to interpret when focusing on the process. If you're having trouble with some part of the process, then you know what to examine and change. This is something you can do as you progress.

If you train for and then try to run a 6-minute mile and fail, what can be done at that point? Does this feedback even help now that the training is over?

Don't Set Goals

Outcomes are largely out of our control, and goals are outcome-focused. You might write an article on Medium that gets 1,000 reads in a single day and then write another that gets 3 in its entire existence.

Those outcomes are out of your control, so it would be unnecessarily stressful and counterproductive to have a goal of writing 10 articles a month that each get more than 100 reads.

But setting that goal as a way to establish habits is useful. Now that you know what you'd like to achieve, set into motion processes that will improve your writing. Read top Medium articles each day. Figure out their style and flow. Write every day. Try to emulate them. Use your own voice.

You can get lost in this endless process, but that's great! As soon as you are doing these things because you want to and not because you're trying to reach some goal, you'll be improving much faster and actually enjoying it. Suddenly, you'll find that you've achieved the goal.

Don't stop there. The goal wasn't the point.

So, did I run a 6-minute mile or a 1:45 half-marathon? Well, if you really want to know the answer to that, then you haven't fully grasped the point of this article.

It doesn't matter if I did or not! I enjoyed trying, and that's all that matters. The race was a nice test to see my progress, but it was also only one data point. It could have been a good or bad day, and it would be silly to throw out the entire process leading up to it based on that.

I'll give you a hint, though. If training for something is enjoyable, then what do you think happened when I went to test how far I'd come on my running journey? That can be you.

Final Thoughts

As we saw in the research, there are many reasons people don't attain their goals directly related to an overemphasis on the results they are seeing. One setback outside of your control can put you on the off-ramp. Goals are less effective than habits and easier to walk away from.

Goals do help measure long-term progress. Here's the takeaway: choose a goal and turn it into a daily habit or ongoing process and then forget about the results if you want to make the most progress.

For example, instead of trying to read 100 books this year, just read every night before bed. By valuing the process of working toward the goal, you'll be free to alter it as needed. You'll be free to take extra time on a particularly thought-provoking book or give up on a dud.

You'll avoid setbacks and disappointments because there is no numerical criterion anymore. If you miss a week, you won't give up thinking there's no way to get through it anymore.

And by turning your goals into ongoing processes, you'll have a new habit that continues right past the original goal.

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