Robert Greene in Mastery talks about how easy wins or successes can sometimes be a curse rather than a blessing. Greene argues that most things in life do not come easy and if we have the expectation that it should, then that can cripple us. This is because the expectation for things to be easy can cause us to give up too quickly. When I read Mastery years ago I did not fully appreciate that insight, but over the years, I’ve seen that it’s not only true but also beneficial to not expect quick results. In other words, it might be better to expect certain things to take a long time. Your best strategy is to favour process over progress.
When you favour process over progress you don’t rush. In other words, when you are present for every step you tend to be more meticulous. You can focus on what is in front of you without getting bogged down by possible future successes or failures.
Why process is more important than progress
Progress is rarely linear, so looking for progress (or results) during a phase of stagnation (or plateau) is a bad idea. Let’s say you’re trying to improve your writing and you’ve decided to write one hour per day for the next year. Initially, you might actually feel that you’re getting worse at writing. This is because your awareness as a writer is growing. You’re learning to distinguish good writing from bad writing. Or it might be that you’re unlearning a few bad habits and this might make you feel like you’re starting from square one every day. So, it would be a bad idea to look for improvements after a week or a month. Sometimes, as we become more knowledgeable or skilled in a field, we realise just how little we know. This can be intimidating and overwhelming. But we can circumvent that feeling of I-still-have-mountains-to-climb by just focusing on process, just focusing on presence.
Also, when you are completely present for each step, your performance in the moment also tends to improve. You’re doing the most effective thing in the moment: you’re being single-mindedly focused on one task. This can speed up your progress—the trick is to not rely on that progress.
When progress is favoured over process
Someone once told me that, when they write fiction, they will often just write something (anything) to get to their target daily word count. When they don’t know what to write, they type, I don’t know what to write, over and over, until inspiration strikes. An easy six words repeated ad nauseum. I thought this was silly. This is an act of chasing some predetermined word count without any consideration for quality, or relevance of the writing. Typing something over and over just to get a certain amount of words on the page doesn’t even help you to clarify the scene. Or character. Or anything else. Thinking about the story—without typing anything—would have been more productive.
In any case, this is a good example of progress over process. No presence. Only some predetermined word count. And if you think about it—no real progress either.
This might sound like an extreme example, but there are many things in society that function this way. When you peek underneath the hood of some institutions and companies, you encounter this way of thinking often. We can’t really change things there, but we can choose to favour process over progress in our own lives. We can choose to be present for every step.
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