Process your Process

Find Your True Potential with This Game-Changing Sports Performance Strategy

There is no end to education. It is not that you read a book, pass an examination, and finish with education. The whole of life, from the moment you are born to the moment you die, is a process of learning.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

In sports, just about everyone says "focus on the process." The best coaches all preach process.

TL;DR: Instead of focusing on the result, concentrate on the process. Good things take time; success comes from consistent effort rather than heroic acts. Setting manageable goals, breaking them down into steps, and focusing on each step can help shift the focus from outcomes to the process. Strategies to avoid an outcome focus include:

• Letting things unfold naturally.

• Focusing on small steps.

• Stopping just short of exhaustion to avoid burnout.

“Continuous improvement is not about the things you do well — that’s work. Continuous improvement is about removing the things that get in the way of your work. The headaches, the things that slow you down, that’s what continuous improvement is all about.” ~Bruce Hamilton

Everyone preaches focus on the process because it's the key to unlocking our true potential. But what do we get wrong, and how can we apply this concept to our performance?

Good things take time.

When we focus on outcomes instead of process, it results in a few things:

1. It puts time pressure on us, shifting us to quick fixes and shortcuts

2. Focusing on the process pushes us towards a focus on the external. Extrinsic rewards/motivation and comparison to others

Both may work in the short term but backfire over the long haul.

Decades of research show better performance comes when intrinsic motivation is the driver. We're playing a 9-inning game. Yet, we often feel like we're always in the bottom of the 9th with 2 outs. We're not.

Good results take consistency, not heroic efforts.

Focusing on outcomes often pushes us towards heroic efforts: the big workout, launch, or sales push. But success isn't determined by a great day. It comes from stacking month after month of solid days. By shifting our focus to the process, we can relieve ourselves from the constant pressure of immediate results, allowing us to work more effectively and with less stress.

Consistency compounds.

The magic is doing the simple things repeatedly and long enough to ignite the miracle of the Compound Effect. – Darren Hardy

What does it mean to focus on the process? Simple

1. Set a hard but just manageable goal

2. Figure out what steps it takes to achieve that goal

3. Essentially, forget the goal and focus on completing the steps

Even with that mindset, there will always be a pull towards an outcome focus. Here are some strategies to prevent the pull:

Let things happen instead of always trying to make them happen and often forcing backfires. This strategy involves trusting the process and allowing things to unfold naturally rather than constantly striving for a specific outcome. It's about finding a balance between effort and surrender, which can lead to a more effective and enjoyable performance. Focus on small steps for significant gains. Consistency over time is what we're after. By breaking down our goals into manageable steps and focusing on each, we can experience a sense of achievement and satisfaction with each completed step, motivating us to keep going. Stop one rep short. You can only go to the well so many times. In work and exercise, push yourself, but stop a rep or two before exhaustion. That's where the most significant gains are. This strategy is about balancing pushing your limits and avoiding burnout. By stopping just short of exhaustion, you can maintain a higher level of performance over time, leading to better results.

Look at sports; when we try to force ourselves to run faster or swing a club harder, we tense up, and our performance plummets.

Relax to win.

Do the work, practice, and let your body do its thing.

“Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.”

— Steve Jobs

Research Support of Process

Focusing on the process in sports performance is multifaceted. It encompasses the development of motor skills, psychological resilience, and cognitive functions crucial for achieving high levels of achievement in competitive sports.

Key Insights

• Skilled athletes demonstrate enhanced cortical activity related to focused attention and efficient information processing, which correlates with better performance in sports tasks, such as golf putting1.

• Psychological skills training, including self-skills, arousal-regulation, and motivational skills, is essential for improving performance in high-intensity sports by addressing the psychological demands specific to the sport2.

• Business Process Management (BPM) principles applied to sports can optimize player management processes, drawing parallels from healthcare to improve physical, physiological, and psychological preparation and performance in sports3.

• Valuing the process in sport, including the struggle and ethical framework, can lead to a deeper appreciation of the sport and contribute to the overall sport experience and performance4.

• Elite athletes exhibit neural and cognitive processes that support high achievement, suggesting that understanding these processes can provide insights into the mechanisms of sporting skill at the highest levels5.

• Training processes that induce automation of motor skills and enhance various physiological functions are critical for developing elite performance, with a focus on manipulating training load and periodization6.

• Dual-process theories highlight the importance of both automatic (Type 1) and effortful (Type 2) cognitive processing in sports, suggesting that attentional processing during sport performance varies with expertise level7.

• Understanding how mental skills training translates into improved performance can bridge the gap in athletes' and coaches' acceptance of sport psychology services8.

• Successful athletes use a multiple-goal strategy that includes outcome, performance, and process goals, indicating that focusing on process goals is part of a broader, effective goal-setting approach9.

• Concentration training techniques, such as simulation training and preperformance routines, are proposed to enhance athletes' ability to focus and ignore distractions, although further research is needed for validation10.

Conclusion

Focusing on the process of sports performance is crucial for developing both physical and psychological aspects of athletic achievement. It involves enhancing cognitive functions, such as attention and information processing, and developing psychological resilience through skills training. Additionally, optimizing training and management processes, understanding the neural basis of elite performance, and employing effective goal-setting strategies all contribute to the importance of process orientation in sports. Emphasizing the process allows athletes to engage deeply with their sport, potentially leading to improved performance and a more fulfilling sports experience.

Research Articles:

1. Baumeister, J., Reinecke, K., Liesen, H., & Weiss, M. (2008). Cortical activity of skilled performance in a complex sports related motor task. European Journal of Applied Physiology, 104, 625-631. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-008-0811-x.

2. Birrer, D., & Morgan, G. (2010). Psychological skills training as a way to enhance an athlete's performance in high‐intensity sports. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, 20. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0838.2010.01188.x.

3. Ranaweera, J., Zanin, M., Weaving, D., Withanage, C., & Roe, G. (2021). Optimizing Player Management Processes in Sports: Translating Lessons from Healthcare Process Improvements to Sports. International Journal of Computer Science in Sport, 20, 119 - 146. https://doi.org/10.2478/ijcss-2021-0008.

4. Hochstetler, D. (2003). Process and the Sport Experience. Quest, 55, 231 - 243. https://doi.org/10.1080/00336297.2003.10491801.

5. Yarrow, K., Brown, P., & Krakauer, J. (2009). Inside the brain of an elite athlete: the neural processes that support high achievement in sports. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 10, 585-596. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn2672.

6. Smith, D. (2003). A Framework for Understanding the Training Process Leading to Elite Performance. Sports Medicine, 33, 1103-1126. https://doi.org/10.2165/00007256-200333150-00003.

7. Furley, P., Schweizer, G., & Bertrams, A. (2015). The two modes of an athlete: dual-process theories in the field of sport. International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 8, 106 - 124. https://doi.org/10.1080/1750984X.2015.1022203.

8. Gee, C. (2010). How Does Sport Psychology Actually Improve Athletic Performance? A Framework to Facilitate Athletes' and Coaches' Understanding. Behavior Modification, 34, 386 - 402. https://doi.org/10.1177/0145445510383525.

9. Filby, W., Maynard, I., & Graydon, J. (1999). The effect of multiple-goal strategies on performance outcomes in training and competition. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 11, 230-246. https://doi.org/10.1080/10413209908404202.

10. Moran, A. (2004). Attention and Concentration Training in Sport. , 209-214. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-809324-5.05476-6.