A Journey of Growth (Part2): Embracing The Process Takes Care Of The Outcome

“New goals don’t deliver new results. New lifestyles do.

And a lifestyle is not an outcome, it is a process. For this reason, all of your energy should go into building better habits, not chasing better results.” — James Clear

In my previous article, I spoke about the need to fall in love with the process but I did not speak about why this is necessary. As we begin a new month, I’m sure a lot of us reviewed our goals and set new ones and some of us are even wondering if we will achieve our goals.

For me, I know the importance of setting goals, but learning a lot from James Clear’s Atomic Habits which talked about something I want to share with you in this article.

“Embracing The Process Takes Care Of The Outcome” — Me

How is the above true?

Let me share my experience with reading, I have a goal to read at least 12 books related to personal growth & development by the end of 2023. Another goal to also read a certain number of books related to my spiritual growth & development, career, business and other areas. In summary, I have to read a lot of books by the end of 2023.

By the end of January and February, I did 5 books in total, two on general growth (ie Atomic Habits By James Clear & Principles by Ray Dalio), two on spiritual growth (Spirit, Soul & Body and The New You & The Holy Spirit by Andrew Wommack) and one on career (ie The Lean Product Playbook by Dan Oslen)

How did I achieve my outcome of that?

So for spiritual growth, I’m like, “during my prayer hour, I will read a book for at least 30mins “. So now, my quiet time included prayer & meditation and now reading a faith focused book.

For general growth, I have carved out 30–45 mins daily (usually in the mornings) to read and for career, I have also carved out an hour during working hours to grow in relation to my field.

So I’m embracing the process of becoming and this becoming is automatically taking care of the results — ie completing x number of books within a period.

James Clear puts it beautifully,

“Focus on the person you want to become rather than the result you desire”

He calls it the identity focused way of developing habits. So I tell myself that I want to be the kind of person who reads every day, I want to be the kind of person who is learning how to be better in my career and all this is changing the way I approach my goals.

Another example is how I wanted to be more fitness oriented, “omo, going to the gym requires another level of discipline ooo!” I want the muscles and all, but one of my friends told me that I should focus on making fitness a lifestyle and the body will take care of itself.

Well, I set a target to hit the gym 3x every week, so meaning I should have 12x gym days in a month. I was doing this, I moved from 6/12 gym days in January to 10/12 gym days in February and I put on an extra 3.0kg by the end of those two months. (this is a whole article to write about… watch out)

Well, am I where I want to be? Nope! Nope! Not at all, but I want to fall in love with the process & make it a lifestyle and I am sure the result will take care of itself.

I use same for my Christian Journey, the identity is, “to be a CHILD OF GOD”, now I begin to ask questions like; “who is a child of God, what does a child of God do?” Answering these made me understand that oh, a child of God shows up for Mass early, prays everyday, studies the bible, etc and I am trying to become this child of God.

You can ask yourself, what kind of person do you want to be in a specific area? Do you want to be a great entrepreneur, engineer, lawyer? What makes someone great? What do they do on a regular basis? Find that out and do it, and the outcome will take care of itself.

New goals don’t deliver new results. New lifestyles do.

And a lifestyle is not an outcome, it is a process. — James Clear

March is still early, take time to revisit your goals and ask yourself what system or process can help me achieve my goals and then start doing them on a daily, weekly, bi-weekly basis.

Conclusion

Committing to the process is what makes the difference. — James Clear

Remember, it is not so much about the goals, it is always about the process, the daily moves you make to becoming that you seek to be.

The process is boring but you have to learn to love it.

I hope you enjoyed this article. I wish you a wonderful month and I wish you the best in loving the boring process of things!

May March be awesome!

Don’t forget to give me some claps… I mean a lot of claps!