Become a top performer – fall in love with the process

To fall in love with the process, is to fall in love with life

Summary:

• You need to adopt a lifestyle in order to achieve and maintain your targets
• Top performers still find a way to show up, to work through the boredom, and to embrace the daily practice that is required to achieve their goals
• Finding purpose in the goals you set yourself boosts your motivation

Practical advice:

• Ask yourself why do you actually want to achieve your goal
• Make your objectives and their accompanying obstacles visible
• Once you found your why, you always need to remind yourself of it

Dear friend,

Everyone has goals. Goals are great: They give us direction, help us to advance, and make the time we’ve on this planet more meaningful.

A too strong emphasis on the outcome, tough, has various downsides: A lack of execution when work isn’t easy, a sense of emptiness once the goal is achieved, or missing sight for better alternatives.

Contrarily, falling in love with the process cures many of these flaws.

In today’s article, I want to talk about high-achievers and their need to learn how to handle the boredom and how to achieve goals more successfully by embracing the process.

Why you should chase a lifestyle

Muhammad Ali once said:

I hated every training, but I said: Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.

His obsession with becoming and being the best boxer allowed him to resolutely pursuit his goal and ultimately achieve it.

Muhammad Ali didn’t just want to win a world champion title, he wanted to be a champion for the rest of his life. He chose this kind of lifestyle. Even though he hated every minute of his training, he was so passionate about the process of becoming the best boxer that he was motivated throughout.

Indeed, if you put all your energy and focus just on the final results while ignoring the process, you will never walk away fulfilled because your happiness will only be based on the results and not the process. I don’t know whether Muhammad Ali was a happy and fulfilled person. What we can tell, however, he was one of the hardest working athletes, and definitely the best of his profession.

Practicing the process will get you to where you want to be if you learn to embrace it. For instance, if you want to be in the best shape of your life, then losing 10 kilograms or building muscles might be necessary. But the only way to reach and maintain this result is to fall in love with the process of eating healthy and exercising consistently.

You need to adopt a lifestyle in order to achieve and keep a great physique – the lifestyle of a physically active and healthily nourished person.

Once you really unterstand this premise, you’ll approach your goals differently and achieve them more successfully and sustainably.

Learn to handle the boredom

What’s the difference between the best athletes like Ali and everyone else?

What do the really successful professionals do that most people don’t?

As far as I can judge these questions, it comes down to who can handle the boredom of exercising consistently.

The master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried

The broad society claims that high achievers are passionate, and, thus, working hard for their goals didn’t take them much. What’s really the case, though, the succeeding people feel the same boredom and the same lack of motivation that everyone else feels. They don’t have some magic pill that makes them feel ready and inspired every second of their life.

Nonetheless, top performers still find a way to show up, to work through the boredom, and to embrace the daily practice that is required to achieve their goals. It’s their commitment to the process. They fall in love with the daily practice, not the individual event.

How to fall in love with the process

Now – enough talking, how can you increase your performance and achieve your goals more successfully by embracing the process?

Have a very strong WHY

First of all, ask yourself why do you actually want to achieve your goal, such as good grades, a high salary, learn to sing, or a sixpack. Find out what’s your ulterior motive, i. e. the underlying motivation.

Finding purpose in the goals you set yourself boosts your motivation and consequently enhances ability to handle the boredom and work when work isn’t easy.

For example, everything I do has to be aligned my purpose of life. If something doesn’t contribute to it, I won’t do it, and if it does, I exactly know why I do it.

Visualize your goal

Secondly, think about how it feels when you achieve your goal and what obstacles you will likely face. Draw a clear picture of goal achievement and all the things that might impede your success. Psychological research has shown that this technique can significantly increase the chances that you will achieve your goal.

Moreover, you need to focus on progress rather than on results. A too strong emphasis on the outcome – particularly at the beginning of your journey – can significantly demotivate you and inhibits your potential by discouraging risk taking.

Adopt the right mindset

Once you found your why, you always need to remind yourself of it. If you encounter a period of low energy and rock-bottom motivation, contemplate why you started in the first place & how it feels like when you achieved your goal.

There will be times of tedious and mundane or overwhelmingly challenging work, but as long you keep going, you will definitely succeed.

Ultimately, it’s much more about the journey not the destination. You want to be outstanding? You want to be a top-achiever? Then embrace the process and fall in love with every single part of the journey.