Second Cup: Focus on process, not outcome

that can make goals in general feel more doable. So I have talked with a lot of people about their goals over the years, and I find that many of them are about a desired outcome, like lose fifteen pounds and fit in your old genes, or get an amazing new job, meet someone special, see your net worth cross a million dollars. Now, there is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting any.

in the middle of a hiring freeze. Many of us have had the experience of working hard to lose weight and then needing to take medication for something that then puts back on the pounds that you work to lose. All of this can be frustrating if we are not careful. These setbacks can make us question our agency over our lives. But when we focus on process, not outcome, all of this changes. I may or may not lose fifteen pounds, but I can focus on eating more vegetables and fewer

empty calories. I can exercise regularly and get enough sleep. I can drink more water and less of anything else. All of those things might nudge the scale or they might not, depending on what else is going on, but they will make me healthier, and they are within my control. Likewise, you can vastly increase the chances of landing your dream job by sending three notes to people in your network daily talking about what you are looking for that is within your control. The market can go up and down.

You probably need to be invested in the market to build any sort of substantial wealth, but you can create a budget that allows for emergencies and also allows you to save twenty percent of your income. You can then faithfully follow that budget and also invest in index funds, making small orders every month or so. You may or may not meet mister or missus right immediately. But you can set up online dating profiles and arrange to go on one first date per week or so until someone clicks.

You can ask everyone you know to set you up with people, and you can put the positive mental energy into this process that it often demands that is within your control. I have found that focusing on process helps me stick with my goals. Broadly, I would like to be a well read person. So as part of that goal, each year I choose a year long reading project. This year, I'm reading all the works of Jane Austen at a

rate of ten pages per day. That's not much I can control whether or not I read ten pages, and so I do it. How could you focus on process? Whatever your desires happen to be, Think if there is something you could commit to doing regularly that would help you move in that direction. Choose doable actions that won't be too hard to do. You just might achieve big things over time, but you will feel more in control and feel more agency over your life, and that may

be the most powerful goal achieving strategy of all. In the meantime, this is Laura, Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of our time.