Are You Seeking to Transform? Want to Jumpstart A Transition? Set Up the Right Process

Number 148

Sport Psychiatrist Michael Lardon has worked with Olympic gold medalists, PGA tour golfers and other athletes seeking to understand and better achieve peak performance. In his book Finding Your Zone, Lardon offers suggestions that have helped athletes transform themselves from good performers to great ones. Much of his advice would be useful to anyone, whether they want to reach a higher level of performance or they want to manage a transition in some aspect of their life.

Of Lardon’s “10 Core Principles,” my favorite is Lesson Five: “Stay in the now and be in the process.” He says that excelling at an activity mandates that you resist giving into distractions, including anxiety or self-doubt.

To do that, he says, the trick is to stop obsessing about the score – your ultimate goal – and to concentrate instead on the process that is likely to help you play a great game today. Using PGA Tour golf as an example, he says that great players learn to shift their perspective from result goals, like beating a competitor, to process goals, like taking the steps that will allow them to do their best on each shot.

When working with golfers, Lardon asks them to stay in the process by keeping a scorecard that records three “yes” or “no” answers for every shot: (1) Did you visualize the shot before executing it? (2) Did you hit the shot without any doubt or ambivalence? And (3) if you incurred any negative or distracting thoughts, did you back away from the shot and clear your mind?

When a golfer can answer “yes” to these questions for most of his shots in a day, he has transformed himself into a winner, regardless of the score. By staying in the process, he has controlled those factors that are actually within his control and has not been distracted by bad breaks. And, says Lardon, when you stay more process-oriented and focus on mastering the controllable variables, you inevitably accomplish greater results over the long term.

Part of what happens with a process focus is that you pay more attention to what you are doing and stop wasting energy on mistakes or bad luck in the past, or possible future threats. The same process orientation that works for high performing athletes can help you navigate transitions or transformations in any sphere of your life.

To use a simple example, let’s say you want to lose weight. Programs like Weight Watchers Online can help you to shift your focus from the scale and remain engaged in the process of selecting healthy, low calorie food at each and every meal. By keeping within the Weight Watchers point system, and recording every bite of food you put in your mouth, you put your trust in the process, and your transformation – your weight loss – may come fairly easily.

A process orientation also can help to facilitate a more complicated life transition, like changing careers or creating a new life after a divorce or other trauma. Perhaps with a coach or friend, you can lay the groundwork of your successful transition by identifying processes that might help you explore and build toward your next phase.

The idea is to come up with daily or weekly tasks and practices that will support the change you want. For example, you might want to start routinely scheduling time to read about a new field, while at the same time you commit to a regular program of networking, and to fitness, financial or other routines to support your next move.

When in doubt, think about the factors that are within your control, identify processes that will allow you to address those factors, and commit your energy to sustaining those processes. Chances are you will reach your goals much faster once you stop obsessing about the longer term and remain more focused on the process steps that you can take today.