Process over product

I recently watched an interview with Grace Lordan on how to find a career that you love. She talks about her book, “Think Big: Take Small Steps and Build the Future You Want”, which I definitely plan to read. But she also touched on something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately, and that is about focusing on the everyday over the someday.

In her instance, it was about careers. Grace noted that she sees many people that focus on the label of a career, like doctor or lawyer, and all the ideas and prestige that surround something like this in T.V. and film. That’s often what people are dreaming about - the label and what they think is associated with it. Or she says they are interested in the lifestyle that comes with a job. Think expensive cars or fine dining when working finance in the City.

The issue is that these goals, the ‘someday’, disguise the everyday that’s actually associated with the role. Unfortunately, roles like doctor, lawyer etc. require extensively long hours, a huge amount of sacrifice in free time, and the day-to-day of the actual job that we see in T.V. shows just isn’t representative of how hard the jobs are.

This is extremely similar to the idea of process over product that I use when thinking about goal setting and habit forming. Often setting a goal can be helpful, and it’s difficult not to dream about what an end product will look like, even if you don’t formally set a goal. But a focus on the goal brings a big anxiety about the mountain ahead of you instead of learning to enjoy the path you’re taking. Sticking to doing a little everyday, making it enjoyable, being consistent - these are all much more conducive to achieving big goals than actually setting big goals in my experience.

Parallel to this idea is another piece of advice that I read in Write No Matter What: Advice for Academics. Here, Joli Jensen talks about forgetting about the end product as a big ordeal that has to be gone through, or the idea that it needs to be perfect. Instead, think of yourself as a craftsman, working to improve their trade overtime. In this case it’s writing, but it applies equally well to presenting or other end-products. Each extra bit of writing you do, each bit of feedback from peer review, is another step in improving your craft. It’s just an iterative process and this is the latest feedback loop, not a big looming product that needs to be perfect.

All of these ideas have a core theme of process over product. For me this hugely reduces my anxiety around getting started and actually presenting or handing-over the finished product. Because it’s not about the product. It’s about the process behind it; it’s about honing my craft. I write and present for me, because I enjoy them and I want to get better at them, and this is just the next iteration on that. Hopefully this idea helps someone else relieve some anxiety around seemingly big projects where there’s a looming product that has to be handed over in some form.