Avoiding the Outcome Trap: Commit to Your Practice

Viewing the Process as the Work…and the Goal

There are a few ways to look at how to elevate your work to that next level, set yourself apart, and leave anyone else behind that is hoping to compete. It also helps to consider why you do what you do? What will make it sustainable over time and not a temporary project? Whether it be your work, your hobby, or craft - are you doing it to make a quick buck, trying to get noticed, or do you love the process or activity for the long run? What’s the real reason for the craft or work you do?

• Doing the work

• Taking the journey

• Enjoying the process

• Embracing practice

• Climbing the mountain

• Building the house

You can say it how you want, but it’s the process that’s important to love to take your business, work, or craft to the next level. You hear it from so many greats, and they continue to prove it’s true. Coach K, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Tom Cruise, Taylor Swift, Warren Buffett, the list of major figures in any field, with most explaining it’s not about an outcome, it’s about the process. The outcome will be there, when you do the work.

Doing the work, whether that's natural love, or something you learn to love, a true passion, or innate skill, the work itself across the journey, and that “climb”, that is the thing, the goal. Want to be the best, do it, over and over again. Not doing great things for thirty days, six months, but great work for five, ten, fifteen, plus years.

Nick Saban, now former Head Football Coach, University of Alabama, who just announced his retirement, has been an exceptional example of this. The process is what he did - to the point, I once heard a sport radio host call him “The Executioner”, because he executed on the process without fail, and did so, because that’s what he did. He showed little need for the fame, but he obsessed over excellence, the work, the culture, and driving the process, which became the process for winning.

Seth Godin walks through this concept of doing the work, for the work’s sake, in his book, “The Practice: Shipping Creative Work”. Below are the Top 25 concepts I took away from his book that urges you to “ship” your work. The work doesn’t live until it’s “shipped”. Some were just too good to paraphrase, and thus multiple quotes that show the power of this book, to apply to your own craft. Key concepts from the book:

1. No guarantee of success is no reason to not do something. We never have guarantees, but you have a 0% chance if you don’t commit to the practice and do the work.

2. The concept of the process and practice - you have to do it because that’s what you do, and you have to love it or learn to love whatever you do, and that’s what gives you the best chance at success in that space

3. The practice makes you better and gives you the best chance at real growth overall

4. Set a date to ship your work, or you will find every reason to delay or never ship it

5. Fight through not shipping work…if something is prepared that’s a bit edgy, ship it. Don’t try to be so careful and comfortable, but embrace and speak to your perspective  

6. We are doing the work for other people, and our commitment to the work allows us to produce better work for others - service to others will make our work better

7. It doesn’t matter how we feel, we still do the work - the work will dictate how we feel and improve our feelings

8. “The trap is this: only after we do the difficult work does it become our calling. Only after we trust the process does it become our passion. “Do what you love” is for amateurs. “Love what you do” is the mantra for professionals.”

9. The process drives the outcomes, you can’t obsess over the outcome, obsess over doing good work

10. Intentional work promotes clarity which will be better than lost work

11. “The work is to make change happen. If we don’t ship the work, no change will happen. If we ship the wrong work to the wrong people, no change will happen. Your audience doesn’t want your authentic voice. They want your consistent voice.”

12. Do the work because it has purpose, intention, you love the process, don’t do it for external validation or acknowledgment

13. “The process, not the outcome. That’s the heart of our practice. Good process leads to good outcomes.”

14. Relish those who give you feedback, provide meaningful feedback you can operationalize in your work how you see fit. Ignore critics who just don’t like your work - they aren’t your tribe, fans, or audience.

15. Find your 100 true fans

16. “If you need a guarantee of critical and market success every time you seek to create, you’ve found a great place to hide.”

17. Using your “bad ideas'“ gives you power to make your work better

18. “It doesn’t matter whether you call yourself a “writer.” It doesn’t matter if you’re a singer or a traffic engineer. Write more. Write about your audience, your craft, your challenges. Write about the trade-offs, the industry, and your genre. Write about your dreams and your fears. Write about what’s funny and what’s not. Write to clarify. Write to challenge yourself. Write on a regular schedule. Writing isn’t the same as talking, because writing is organized and permanent. Writing puts you on the hook. Don’t you want to be on the hook?”

19. “Good needs to be defined before you begin. What’s it for and who’s it for? If it achieves its mission, then it’s good.”

20. Do the work every single day. Build, create, write, and ship daily.

21. Find your specific niche - the smallest group it makes sense to write to. “Make it for someone, not everyone.”

22. Make a statement - develop a point of view. Commit to an idea, or statement, a perspective. Commit

23. Make something you’re proud of - the more you do that, you have an opportunity to change a niche, or make something meaningful

24. “Ultimately, the goal is to become the best in the world at being you. To bring useful idiosyncrasy to the people you seek to change, and to earn a reputation for what you do and how you do it. The peculiar version of you, your assertions, your art.”

25. “When you find the edge of the box, you’re in the place that has scared away those that came before you. It’s from this edge that you can turn the constraint into an advantage, instead of an excuse.”

_{Quotes are taken from:}

_{Godin, Seth. The Practice: Shipping Creative Work. Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.}

The Practice is such a great reminder and push to do the work. Don’t wait, don’t perfect, don’t try to find every reason to delay, and definitely don’t cater to every fad, but to do the work. Doing the work, taking action, and loving the work and the process itself, that’s where the magic is generated. Not in some rival work, but in the consistency. Not in a fad, a trend, a flash in the pan, but real, honest, work.

Consistency in doing the work, for the work’s sake, not to achieve some level, but to keep doing the work. Doing the work is what makes you great over time, because putting the work in, is the way to greatness. No cheat codes, no hacks, no tricks, no shortcuts. Doing the work positions you for greatness. Find your niche or craft, and execute on the process that you have the most passion and energy around.

Shout out to Allison Hare who recommended this book - it was perfect timing for me to get a bit deeper into why I do, what I do, what I want to do, and what outcomes do I expect based on what work. It also helped reset expectations on doing the work - real work is almost never going to reach the pinnacle in a year, you may not find your audience for two to three years, but that’s not why we do it. We do it, because it’s important to share our perspective, because this is what we do, we work the process because it’s what we love, and this is what we have to share to our specific audience. This is our contribution.

Once you discover your practice, your purpose, and what gives you energy, do the work, put in the work, and follow the process, because it’s what you do, regardless of fanfare. Income and your tribe will come, as long as you continue to do the work. Doing the work, and following the process - that’s what will make you great at whatever it is you want to be great at. Seth Godin reiterates, “Committing to a practice that makes our best better is all we can do.”

Hopefully, this added a little value to your business or your career. Thank you for reading. Please repost or share with someone who may benefit from this edition.

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