Process

I bet you wish you were better. I know I do. In fact, I’ve been obsesssed with it for over a decade. I’ve been obsessed with improving myself and finding ways to get better and I’ve tried everything you can probably think of to do so.

There’s one thing though that I always come back to. It’s my most successful way of improving myself at anything that I’ve ever discovered.

Focus on your process, not on your outcome.

Here’s how I applied it — and still do — in Jiu Jitsu.

Last year in February I started Jiu Jitsu properly. I’d done a few months of it a few years before but I didn’t stick at it. This time I wanted to, and I wanted to get good. As I said, I’m obsessed with always being better.

I decided to apply the thing that works the best in my life: becoming obsessed and doing something as much as possible. I tried to turn up to Jiu Jitsu as often as I could, ideally every day.

This is my attendance card from a few weeks ago. The black lines mean a day I attended.

I didn’t focus on anything else, I just focused on turning up and listening. I didn’t always remember everything, I still don’t now, but turning up was enough.

I was focusing on the process, not the outcome. My outcome — or goal — is to get good at Jiu Jitsu. If I spent lots of time focusing on that I’d get pretty frustrated. It takes a long time to get good at something so complicated.

So instead I focus on the process. I focus every day on just training. Just turning up.

Everybody can focus on turning up. It’s easy. The next time you’re struggling with getting something done, just turn up. The rest will be automatic.