Here is a quote – It is not in the pursuit of happiness that we findfulfillment… it’s in the happiness of pursuit.
—Denis Waitley
Life is never easy for anyone who despises or shows reluctance towards any of its different stages. Well, we do need to and are supposed to react to things, events, people, or phenomena in our peculiar ways; however, staying aloof from them or simply closing our eyes to various processes is unacceptable and unadvisable. Instead of displaying reluctance and avoiding experiences, a sense of happiness in chasing our dreams should guide our way. We should embrace the concept of the process, which further branches out into several steps and sub-steps – each of which deserves our attention.
Sometimes, before even attempting to achieve something we feel afraid because we don’t know what will be the result of our efforts. We don’t know whether we will go all the way or whether dissatisfaction with the results would make us abandon our goals midway. When facing such a dilemma, rather than giving up on hope, we should try to be happy about everything. We should focus our mind, body, heart, and soul on achieving happiness in accepting responsibilities and, of course, displaying enthusiasm in doing meaningful tasks.
After all, in order to build any structure, we should keep a close tab on its daily, weekly, and monthly progress. Unless we religiously follow all the steps, chances are that the structure will not meet our expectations. We do need to remove old barriers, such as our apprehensions, fears, disinclinations, and preconceived notions, to see that structure taking shape gradually. Trust in and love for the process inspires individuals to follow the pursuit in its right sense.
Trust the process so that you can enjoy it
Rather than labeling our destination as unreachable and fretting about it from a distance, we need to calm down and slow down to preserve our energy so that we can eventually reach it. So don’t worry, don’t hurry; instead, start trusting the process, and you’ll start getting positive results. A firm belief in the process makes the entire task easier and more enjoyable. Those who keep sitting idle and waiting for miracles to happen cannot be a part of the process and hence, their ideas never get any closer to reality.
Outcome-Oriented versus Process-Oriented Thinking
The dynamic trio of Deborah V Thompson, Rebecca W Hamilton, and Petia K Petrova came up with research titled The Effects of Outcome versus Process-Oriented Thinking on Decision Difficulty6. The research tries to establish a difference by citing an example. Suppose you were to look for an apartment to rent, and there were two options. One is a spacious and affordable apartment far from your workplace. The other is less spacious and a bit costlier; however, it’s at walking distance from your workplace.
Any process-oriented individual will prefer the smaller and closer apartment since they know that there will be savings on travel expenses and greater ease of reaching home. Such a person breaks the outcome into manageable chunks and analyzes the ins and outs of their decision. An outcome-oriented person, on the other hand, will never consider such explanations and hence, will prefer the larger, cheaper alternative.
After all, a good life is a process
We should develop the persistence to fall in love with the process to see results coming our way. Our progress, the realization of our dreams, and the quality of our life depends directly on the level of our commitment to the process.
When we consider life a process and do our level best to better it, it becomes a direction that undeniably has the destination in sight.
An inability to appreciate the process and a lack of focus on time, larger gains, and the element of happiness prove to be costly in the long run.
