Process Over Outcome

We set goals and make plans to achieve them over a lifetime. Some outcomes we hit, some we don’t. And sometimes, we find out that the goal we were chasing was never truly meant for us. When we become too attached to those outcomes, it can stir up a range of emotions.

Through painting, meditation, and long walks outside—sometimes with nothing but my thoughts, other times focusing only on each step—I’ve realized it’s more about the process than the outcome.

Even when we feel lost in the process, or stuck in it, there’s still movement happening beneath the surface. Progress doesn’t always look like forward motion—it can also be integration, reflection, or pause.

Maybe you’ve experienced this too: we reach that person, place, or thing we’ve been striving for, and then immediately start looking for the next. Or we sit in the moment of “accomplishment” and then flatline for a bit. Perhaps that flatline is actually an integrating moment—a reset before the next rise.

When we look too far into the future, we create anxiety. When we linger too long in the past, we replay moments that no longer serve where we are now—both in our individual growth and as part of the collective.

In doing so, we lose touch with the present—the only place where life is actually happening. Dropping into the now can feel like surrender. It’s a space where control fades and life simply flows. From my perspective, that’s an incredible feeling.

It’s not easy to do consistently—it requires practice, presence, and patience. But it’s worth it. The process brings both euphoria and struggle. You can’t have one without the other.

As someone I met recently—a leader and business owner in Nashville—put it in a way that’s stuck with me:

“You can’t have the joy without the pain, and you can’t have the growth without the grind.”

Thanks for reading.