What Does it Mean to be Process-Oriented?

In performance circles, you often hear “be process oriented,” “trust the process,” or a number of other taglines to remind you to prioritize ‘process’ over ‘outcomes.’ While this, in my opinion, is certainly the right way to go about training, or any endeavor in life, I wonder if the actual meaning of this gets cheapened the way we talk about it. Today I want to dive into what this actually means (to me), and what it actually looks like.

Being process oriented to me highlights a few things:

1) Focusing on the present. The only way to achieve a certain goal down the road, is to focus on what you are doing in the present moment to achieve x or y goal. There is little to no use to constantly think about achieving some goal down the road. If anything, I find that this wastes mental energy on what we cannot control. But focusing on what you can do in the present moment allows you to put this energy to use in a productive manner. This could be practicing visualization, going for a shakeout run, doing some mobility work, meditating, or anything else.

2) Identifying controllable actions that increase the likelihood of high performance. We can never truly guarantee high performance; there are a number of factors outside of our control that we are at the mercy of. But, we can identify things that make the chance of high performance higher. I recommend creating routines that are manageable and that you truly understand the usefulness of. This will create a sense of meaning behind the work that you are putting in, regardless of what context you are desiring high performance.

3) Creating a relationship with ‘The Work.’ The Work is what leads to success. Sometimes this is tangible, measurable success, and other times its more abstract growth perhaps personally or psychologically. The Work is what you do on a day to day basis, the routines you create, the habits you form, that will ultimately decide what your performance is. But if you go a layer deeper, you will find that The Work is a great teacher. You will find purpose in The Work beyond just improving your performance, or an outcome, on a given day. This, to me, is the true beauty of endurance sports. The Work teaches everything from humbleness, to tenacity, to grit, to compassion. And everyone has different experience with The Work. Create a relationship with The Work, and discover for yourself this next layer, beyond outcomes and results.

To me, being process oriented (in my own running) looks like this:

• Framing training on smaller timescales; within a day, within a session, within a single rep.
• Finding useful things to put my energy into instead of thinking about outcomes constantly (visualization, recovery modalities, strength/mobility work)
• Creating routines that give me the best chance to adapt to training, and to prepare for training (lots of sleep, sauna, eating, and plenty more)
• Finding ways to enjoy The Work. For me this means running with friends, driving to nice places to run, and getting brunch after workouts.
• Figuring out how to be process oriented on race day. Locking in a pre race routine, physically and mentally, and being present with those actions throughout the course of those day. When your mind wanders to outcomes and the race, simply bring it back; everyone experiences distraction.
• There are plenty more, but this list helps me reflect, and may spark some of your thoughts too.

Discovering the joy and purpose of the process creates sustainability that will lead to long term, consistent growth. This is the way to high performance in a happy and healthy way.

Thanks for reading!