Every athlete has some sort of goal in mind, whether it be personal accolades, team success, or aspirations of playing at the next level. The best athletes use these goals as motivation to work, enduring the process day in and day out. They also understand that the process will include setbacks, because it’s not a linear progression to achieve a result. As Joel Embiid made famous, you have to “trust the process” and not get distraught by setbacks.
The process makes up about 99% of a player’s life as an athlete compared to the result making up that last 1%. Training sessions, workouts, practices, extra reps, games, and everything in between are all a part of the process. Since the process takes up so much time, we have to train with a process-oriented mindset in order to achieve the true result. If we approach each day seeking the gratification of achieving a goal or result, we will end up frustrated and mentally lost almost every day. Being result-oriented causes us to lose motivation or leads to setbacks that could be avoided.
In order to have a process-oriented mindset, we have to understand that a single day will not make or break the goal. There will be great days when we feel like our training sessions or games went well, which makes it really easy to enjoy the process. However, there will be some small or big setbacks throughout the process that will make us question its intent. The process-oriented mindset allows us to view our progress in a bigger picture and understand there is still a path to success, allowing us to regain our confidence and motivation. We can do this by reflecting on the improvements made or progression achieved, or resetting your focus to that bigger result we are truly seeking.
By continuing to work through the process, we put ourselves in a strong position to achieve our goal or result. Once we achieve our result, it’s important to celebrate and admire what has been accomplished in order to avoid getting stuck in the cycle of the process. As mentioned earlier, the process is 99% of the journey but when that result comes around, we have to allow ourselves to enjoy the reward,
And when we accomplish one goal or result, the process starts back up again as we aim for our next one. For example, if a pitcher is training to throw 85mph on the mound, once that number is hit, they set a new goal. The pitcher will celebrate reaching their first goal, but now there is a new result to work toward. The same thing applies in a team setting: if a team works all off-season and then wins a championship, do you think they are done? No, the new desired result is to win two championships in a row. Then if they accomplish that, they will go for a three-peat.
This is the cycle a player endures throughout their entire career. The players that find the most success are the ones that live for the process because they know it can make them great. The reality is that a player’s career does not end after one result, it ends when they are done going through the process. So if you want to have a long, rewarding career, you have to love and trust the process.
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