Beat Burnout by Engaging the Process
The following is adapted from Sustain Your Game by Alan Stein, Jr.
Over the past few years, the phrase “Trust the process,” has entered the mainstream. If you’re a basketball fan, no doubt you’ve heard it. “Trust the process” went from a rebuilding strategy of the Philadelphia 76ers to the nickname for its star Joel Embiid to something of a running joke. “The process” was a painful (for the fans) rebuilding strategy for a team that had been losing for a long time.
For the rest of us, the process means the (sometimes uncomfortable, sometimes arduous, always necessary) steps needed to get to where you want to go.
I choose to use the verb engage instead of trust, because it is active. Engage the process means keeping your attention and energy on the steps, not the goal. “The problem of judging ourselves based on outcomes,” performance skills coach Ben Oliva explains, “is that we lose track of the things that get us the best outcomes. By focusing all our energy on the outcomes, we end up getting worse outcomes.” Before you know it, you’ve succumbed to burnout.
Engaging the process is your best tool for beating burnout and creating positive, forward momentum.
The Outcome isn’t in Your Control
Bob Richey, head basketball coach at Furman University, has the rare distinction of never having a single player leave his school without a college degree. He’s not just an impressive coach but a great guide and teacher of young minds.
Bob is an enthusiastic process guy. He separates recruits into two groups: the gain-minded and the growth-minded. “In order to sustain high performance consistently,” he told me, “you have to love the growth, not just the gains. You have to love improving . . . not just the results. You have to love the learning, not just the information.”
This is what engaging the process means — not only valuing the finished project but all the pieces along the way. If you’re only interested in reaching the summit, you’re going to have a hell of time climbing the mountain.
Only working with the end in mind is bound to burn you out. Why? Because you only can finish once! And even then, it’s a brief moment in time before you have to move on to the next thing. The outcome is fleeting, while the process is always. On top of this, the outcome is not always in our control. If we engage the process but don’t emerge victorious, we can still feel the work was valuable.
Engaging the process means viewing failures as part of what we do, not some setback to get over. Too often we forget that the failures go hand in hand with the work. If we lean into our misses, we open ourselves up to their lessons. The process allows us to believe: I win even when I lose.
Focus on the W.I.N.
The W.I.N. concept was popularized by Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz, and I have made it central to my work. W.I.N stands for: What’s Important Now? When you get up in the morning, ask yourself: What’s the most important thing I need to do today? Write it down or type it into your phone.
When you put your head on your pillow that night, check it off. You have a clear, demonstrable thing to account for your day. This also gives you a little victory to celebrate instead of waiting months or years for the larger ones. That feeling will give you a boost, motivating you to do it again the next day. Pretty soon you’ll be lining up a few days in a row like this.
Focusing on the little steps along the way allows you to get real-time feedback plus the satisfaction (and chemical boost, because of dopamine) of checking off some boxes. Marathon runners don’t make it through 26.2 miles by thinking about the finish line. They take each mile at a time.
Yes, we need a big picture in our minds to plan, but sometimes we need a narrow window, an immediate box to check, to feel accomplished. All of the big things you want to do in life are made up of the small ones.
The Process is Always in Front of You
Shift your focus to the process, micro-steps, and tangible markers of incremental progress. There is no stairway. There are only steps. Strive to create positive, forward momentum. Win THIS meal. Win THIS workout. Win THIS sale. Win THIS meeting. Win THIS phone call.
You achieve success and defeat burnout by winning as many moments and opportunities as possible. By focusing on forward momentum, you can ensure that you’re never stuck.
Engage the process. The process is always in front of you, even if the outcome is fleeting, brief, and potentially out of your hands.
For more advice on beating burnout, you can find Sustain Your Game on Amazon.
Alan Stein, Jr. is a keynote speaker and author who spent 15+ years as a performance coach working with the highest-performing basketball players on the planet (Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, and Kobe Bryant). He now teaches audiences how to utilize the same strategies in business that elite athletes use to perform at a world-class level. Alan is the author of Raise Your Game: High Performance Secrets from the Best of the Best, named one of the top mindset, productivity, and success books of all time by Book Authority.
