Focus on The Process, Results Will Come

I was once in a beach in Brazil watching a group of locals play foot volley, which is the seemingly impossible game of playing beach volleyball without touching the ball with your hands (like you would do in soccer). And I mean exactly like volleyball: same net, same height, no bounces, etc. I guess you have to be Brazilian to play it correctly.

Most players acted like a normal group of competitive players would act: insulting at each other, cursing their partners when they made mistakes, acting smug, being loud, complaining when things didn’t work in their favor, etc.

But there was this guy who caught my attention; he was a little older than the rest, with white hair and chiseled abs. But his truly remarkable feature was that he was completely focused on the game. He never insulted anyone, never complained, he almost didn’t speak at all. Instead, all of his attention was centered on the game.

And when he wasn’t playing, he would train! While the others watched the game and yelled things at each other, he would actually practice to improve his game. And he would do so with a group of kids that the rest of the players all but ignored.

During the 30 minutes I watched different teams rotate and face each other, The Old Man (as I started calling him) never lost a game — he was unstoppable.

But I don’t think he really cared that much about winning. I think he mostly cared about the game itself, like a master craftsman. He respected it, taught it, loved it. I’m sure he enjoyed himself much more that the others, even when he lost.

It made me reflect on how easy it is to focus your attention on external things like: luck, the referee, your opponent, the weather, whatever. But in the end all that matters is what you can do: how you train, how you improve, what’s your attitude and how much you actually enjoy what you’re doing. The rest is just a distraction, something that takes energy away from you and hinders your advance.

So for the past few years I have been struggling to have that attitude in life. I sometimes fail, and compare myself to others or get frustrated when things don’t work my way. But then I catch myself and try to remember that it’s all about the process: those few things I actually can control, those small steps I take everyday to advance a little in my goals.

This doesn’t mean you should be delusional and uncritical about your own process: you still have to analyze it to see what works and how to improve it, that’s part of the very same process. The beautiful thing is that if you do it right, that’s really all there is to it. And as long as you focus on the things you can control, results will come, as they did for The Old Man.