…rather than fixating on the outcome.

You’d only design a process to get the best result. So by executing that, you’re focusing on what’s in your control.

The danger of applying any focus to the outcome (once you’ve set a goal), is that you might get drawn outside of the deliberate process and compromise meeting your objective.

This can be applied to most objectives, but here’s an example of running a race:

1. Let’s say you feel great and push on a bit, you’re then at risk of fading towards the end
2. Equally if you feel poor (which could be a temporary thing, or stays the whole time), and you focus on that, you could start to unravel mentally, which results in a weaker outcome
3. Now imagine you see someone doing better than you and you start to get drawn into a mental battle that knocks you off your plan, because you either push too hard and fade, or self-doubt creeps in
4. Changes in conditions can also be a factor if they tempt you too push, or erode your mental strength because you can see your goal time fading away

It’s ok to make changes to the process ‘live’, as long as they are non-emotional decisions, you’re confident they’ll pay-off, or the outcome isn’t that important to you.

There is a risk that you’ll finish and think “I could have done better”. But lessons can be applied to the process going forward and in reality you don’t know how close to stepping over the point of no return you were!