Are You A Process Or End Goal Person?
When it comes to your health and wellbeing, what are you more concerned about?
In my profession, this question can make the difference between a satisfied client or a dissatisfied customer.
To get an answer that tells me what type of patient I’m dealing with, I often ask this question: “Are you about the process or the end goal?”
Some patients answer immediately. They know definitively where they stand.
It’s like the difference of seeking a doctor for a cosmetic treatment vs seeking a doctor for pain relief.
It’s the difference between facing your problems dead on or dancing around them.
When you think about it, who will get to the finish line with the least amount of pain?
One patient I asked about this got flustered.
I immediately knew where she was at, but I repeated the question because she didn’t know where she was at.
She then spent half of her 50-minute session going back and forth, weighing this in her mind, and attempting to reason it out with me verbally as I worked on her.
You see, I began working on her because I already knew her position and answer to the question.
“There’s no right or wrong to this,” I told her. “
It’s just a question I ask to help me understand what is the best approach and technique for you. It tells me what you are more comfortable with.”
As soon as I stated this, and she felt secure that this was nonjudgmental, she analyzed and reasoned about the question out loud, and came to her conclusion.
“I think I’m a Process person because I think how things are done is the most important issue.”
What do you think?
Which is more important to you? The process, and how you get to your end goal or achieving it?
