Process is Primary

“It’s only when you make the process your goal that big dreams can follow.”

                                                                                      - Oprah Winfrey

While dreaming about victory can bring feelings of exhilaration and pleasure, champions understand that one cannot achieve success just by focusing on the end result. 

Rather, it is focus on properly enacting and completing the key steps along the way that leads to victory.  True champions understand that to experience success, the process is primary.  

In his book, With Winning in Mind, Olympic olympic gold medalist and author Lanny Bassham shares the amazing story of how he coached professional golfer, Ben Crane to his third win on the PGA Tour. 

Until that time, Crane had struggled to achieve wins on the tour, coming close many times, but rarely being able to close the deal.  As they began working together, Bassham suggested that instead of setting a goal to win, Crane should set his goal on the process of playing well as his primary focus. “Process is Primary” became their theme for the year.

Crane’s job, while playing, was to focus entirely on the mental and technical parts of his game and to refrain from thinking about winning.

Scoring well is a function of great performance and winning is the result consistent great performance.  Thinking about winning, Bassham knew from his career as an Olympic pistol shooter, can pull focus off the proper implementation of your mental and technical strategies and tactics in a competition. Therefore, focusing on the process is the key to great performance.

In the fourth tournament of the year at San Diego’s Torrey Pines course, Crane found himself on the green of the 18th hole. Sinking a 30-foot putt was all that stood between him and winning the third PGA Tour event of his career.

Everyone in the crowd and the millions watching on the Golf Channel knew Crane needed to make the putt for the win - but he had no idea.

Before the final putt, he once again centered himself over the ball and then with focus and control, firmly tapped the ball towards the cup.  When the ball rolled in, the crowd erupted with applause and his playing partner offered his hand in congratulations.

Thinking this was just the customary handshake after the round, Crane did not realize he had won the tournament until his wife jubilantly ran onto the green and leaped into his arms!

“Did I win?” Crane asked as he looked incredulously his wife’s smiling face.  

In this instance, Crane realized the fruits of focusing on the process versus the win.  He simply focused on the immediate task at hand, rather than the end result, which can often lead to poor performance (choking) as the pressure of “trying to win” closes in. The victory earned Crane $954,000 sending him on to his best year ever at that point of his career.

I absolutely LOVE this story and believe there is much we can learn from it.  Using Crane’s experience as an example, I would like to offer four key steps I believe can guide us on the road to realizing our aspirations by focusing tasks that are integral parts of the process that I call the Champion’s Process for Creation.

1) Set a Clear Intention – As I have shared many times before, having a clear intention of the results we want to attain (or something better) is critical to their realization.

Getting clear on what we want is a crucial, but not the final step.  I realized as a martial arts competitor that simply visualizing standing on the medal stand was not going to get me to where I wanted to go.  This means creating and diligently working a training plan for how and what I determined would get me there.

2) Visualize your Actions – Once the plan is in place, visualization is vital tool for success. The difference in skill level between elite athletes is minute, at best.  The difference between the gold medalist and runner up is most often in the mental and emotional game. 

When I was competing, I would certainly visualize about the day of the competition and the strategies I would employ, but during my preparation for the event, I also would visualize each night about my next day’s training session.  In doing so, I was anchoring the skills, habits, and mindset I knew would lead to success in the future.  This is true whether it is in the Taekwondo ring, the board room or at home with your family. 

Visualizing the process for success is vital to experiencing it.

3) Focus on the Process – As we learned in the story of Ben Crane, focusing on the process is what truly leads to success.

What are the crucial process steps you need to do each day and each week to experience what you want in your health and well-being, your most important relationships, your business or career and your spiritual path? 

We learn in martial arts that small actions taken consistently over time can lead to massive results.  Where can you be more diligent in the practice of your process in the areas of your life that are most important to you?

4) Let Go of the Outcome – Once you have done all you can do to prepare yourself for any important endeavor, all that is left is to go out, follow your process, do your best and let go of the outcome. Once again, as we saw in the Ben Crane example, truly the letting go of the outcome and focusing on the process was his key to success. 

This week, I challenge all of us to get clear on at least one intention we wish to experience and create and follow the process for success in this area.  Refrain from focusing on the “win” or the outcome. 

Place your attention on the process.  When you do, you will truly understand that the only thing we can truly control is not the result, but the attention, intention, and effort we put towards the process. 

You may not secure a $1 million for sinking a winning putt, but you will experience the joy and exhilaration of being truly on point with your desires while you enjoy the process along the way.

Chris Natzke

Black Belt Leadership Speaking & Coaching

PS:  If you are looking to creating and following a powerful process that will lead to a breakthrough in your life, download a FREE introductory chapter of my new book, #1 Amazon best-seller, BREAKING THROUGH, by texting “breakthrough” to 720-741-6263.