While watching ESPN a while ago, I caught a feature about DeSean Jackson and his Father. Jackson’s father had recently passed away and was featured as the major motivating factor in Jackson’s journey from high school standout to NFL Pro-Bowler. There was a scene in which Jackson is training at the gym, working harder than anyone else around him. At one point he looks directly at the camera, out of breath and on the verge of throwing up and says, “Damn. The price we pay to be great.” That’s when it hit me. DeSean Jackson was right, we all have a price we need to pay for greatness. We aren’t born great, we don’t become great, we work to be great. We achieve greatness through processes.
Nick Saban is considered one of the most successful college football coaches in history. He has won multiple championships, sent more players to the NFL and brought more top recruits into his program than anyone in recent memory, possibly ever. So is Nick Saban successful? Of course, we think he is. But Saban doesn’t. If you listen to him talk he talks constantly about “the process.” When asked about his success, he and his team largely attribute it to his process.
“Process guarantees success,” says Saban. “A good process produces good results.”
1. Embrace the Process of Learning.
Life-long learning is essential to our success. Every single day you are learning something new. This is not a cliche, it’s a cold hard fact. The process of how you learn is different than other people. I learn best while on the move. I read and listen to podcasts on the treadmill, on the train and during my lunch break or while I take a walk around the city. I write best while in different settings, not just my office, but a coffee shop, the couch, our outside in the sunshine. Embrace the way you learn and apply it to your day to day. You can never know too much. Knowledge is power.
2. Embrace the Process of the Details.
Do the little things right. Every detail that you encounter in your day to day deserves your full attention. If you can’t give the details your full attention and get them right, who is going to trust you with the big moments, the big clients, the big deals? Forbes tells us, “the businessperson who prioritizes the daily activities that will be most likely to influence the bottom line has a significant advantage over the competition.” Nobody trusts you to make a shot with the game on the line if you can’t put in the time to get the fundamentals right. Embrace the process of the fundamentals.
3. Embrace the Process of Moving Forward.
Complacency kills. It is easy to stay in a job that is comfortable but doesn’t challenge you. It’s easy to live in the city you grew up in and never leave or never try to make it somewhere else. It’s easy to have dreams and let them stay dreams. The idea of chasing your dreams is far different than the concept of making them come true. It takes a process to chase them down and make them a reality. I was always taught you’re either moving forward or moving backward. The problem with that mentality is that it makes the smaller parts of our lives seem insignificant. Consider everything you do purposefuly. If it doesn’t have a purpose for you, then it is not moving you forward. Eliminate it from your process. Once you start eliminating the complacency and start taking risks, your process will evolve your life.
4. Embrace the Process of Failure.
You will fail. This is guaranteed. The bigger risk you take, the larger the potential failure can be. There’s a quote on the bulletin board of my office by famed Entertainment Agent Ari Emanuel which reads, “Fail often, Fail Quickly…you’ll never succeed unless you take risks. Big ones.” The difference being failing and being a failure is quitting. Failure is about learning. Embrace the process you go through when you fail of identifying what went wrong, what can be improved upon and most importantly what you learned. What can you learn from your failures in order to better streamline your process? Look past your emotions, your disappointment and anger to find the important lessons that you can add to your process of betterment. Then embrace the process of starting over again.
5. Embrace the Process of Now.
The future is something to plan for, not something to worry about. I am good about the former, but terrible about the latter. Being prepared, planning and saving for retirement, having an idea of what you want to do in your career or life, these are great goals. Goal setting is important. Goals become a problem when we choose to look at them as needs instead of wants. I need a bigger house, I need a fancy sports car, I need to be the wealthiest, most successful person in the world. No. You want those things. There is nothing wrong with wanting those things until those wants become needs. If you focus on the process of now, this moment, today, you can take small steps toward the future you want. A thousand small steps make a great distance. Stop turning goals into needs, that way when you exceed them you’ll never be so satisfied you simply quit and rest on your laurels. Embrace the process of your day to day life, find importance in the everyday things. They are all contributing to your future greatness.
Developing a process for how you better yourself is essential for success. Methods and practice, training and pushing yourself through to get to the top is how success happens. Nobody ever became a success overnight, it was through practice and repetition and process that marble becomes the sculpture.