Trust the process is one of the most underrated words of wisdom ever. Sounds so simple yet not an easy task. It is not until you are standing naked and vulnerable with all that you thought you knew stripped away, that you really are forced to practice, live and breathe that profound level of trust in your process.

If so, why am I writing about what you might not practice now?

💡 Taking a good decision has little to do with the moment of decision. The human brain is wired to automatically filter individual experiences and make a rapid choice. For you to trust the process, you need to have learned about trusting the process before the moment of trust.

However, reading this article might be the push you need to trust your process.

💡 Take for example: Now that you are out of college, you want to hit it big and land every/any available pay check. Time seems not to be on your side too. It’s a critical phase of your life and all you have learnt in college seems impractical. How do you solve an ordinary differential equation to pay bills?

There is a hunger for practical knowledge: to learn, unlearn and relearn before it is too late to catch up. It’s crystal clear that there is fire in your bones! You task yourself to learn the lessons and follow the path established by legends.

To become prolific like:

• Community Building: Seth Godin, Peace Itimi, Guy Kawasaki
• Environment / Waste Management: Vanessa Nakate, Oladosu Adenike, Greta Thunberg
• Finance: Tosin Olaseinde
• Photography: Tolani Alli
• Politics: Barrack Obama
• Writing: David Perell, James Clear or Seth Godin.

💡 You must have read of Cesar Rodriguez (if you haven’t, please do). The similarity between his story and that of those who panned out well can be summarised as follows: when others slow down or mentally quit, those who trust the process trudge on well.

• To trust the process is to do so completely. Not 50%. It requires complete focus from you.
• To trust the process is not to be bothered about what is unfolding or why, but simply being present in the situation to experience it.

This is not an anti – planning perspective. The place of due – diligence and proper planning cannot be relegated. It becomes imperative that you trust the process because you cannot be in the know of things all of the time.

💡 You still don’t believe me? What will the situation report be ninety days from now should you start a Newsletter or community today? If you cannot be specific on the number of subscribers, average open rate, the number of positive and negative feedbacks and a number of other varying factors, you’d agree with me that there will always be an element of the unknown. To know this is to respect nature and its process.

If you cannot understand what is unfolding right now, develop an unshakeable sense of trust. Circumstances should be to your advantage. You become smarter by reason of wisdom (intangible) or you have bountiful results to show forth (tangible).

💡 Instead of worrying about an end result you theoretically defined, focus on existing realities and what the next step should be.

What Does This Entail

Trusting the process is quite simple, not much is required:

💡 Focus without interference: To trust the process requires you to take your attention off the world around you and to bring your awareness inwards.

💡 Living in the moment: It is important that you release your desire to know, to control or to see any further ahead than this moment. Life itself is a journey. It’s not all about the destination (we all know that man’s body will return to dust). Don’t short – live because you are fixated on a specific destination and enjoy the moment.

💡 Seek Knowledge: It is important that you learn from the right sources. The right materials and people are critical to your overall success. Imagine you have to train as a welder from a master who hardly take jobs? Treat your training as an apprentice would learn from the master.

Of What Use?

💡 Clarity

The moment you are focused on a theoretically defined end result, there is an overwhelming effect that comes with it. It leaves us feeling stressed, anxious, and places emphasis on performance.

When you focus on the process, you zoom out from the big picture perspective that leaves us feeling stunned and paralysed, and instead get up real close with what needs to be done NOW.

It gives us a way to clear the noisome silence and get some clarity of purpose. Something to latch onto when we feel overwhelmed with everything, we still have to do to accomplish our goals.

Trust and focus on the process so you can break your goals down to tiny, easy – to – chew bites. It breaks down something that is complex into something simple.

It’s about being present: enjoying the moment and not allowing ourselves to be distracted by what may or may not happen tomorrow.

To trust the process is to do what you need to do. The process looks easy. The reality is not quite so.

💡 Due Diligence

It is of utmost importance that you treat your practices like a pitch. For a writer, it starts from your choice of materials to read, to taking notes and in terms of your levels of focus. Don’t joke with your 2hours of writing every morning. Write with the aim of publishing.

💡 Focus

Your process is a training. There is no doubt that there will be times where you feel broken and the need for care sets in. As a student, it’s not everyday you feel like going to school. Sometimes, you are ill. Other times, you want distraction. If you give room for excuse frequently, you aren’t giving yourself a chance to allow your training pan out.

For a moment lean back and think about all the work you need to do in order to crush your goals at the end of the year.

All those early morning writing. The time in the study. The improvements in writing technique. Tightening up your routine. Improving your core strength.

Are you sighing yet? Feeling a little overwhelmed? Like, “How can I possibly do all that stuff?”

That’s a natural reaction when we try to swallow our big goal with one bite.

Cognitively, trying to digest years of hard work is a lot to handle. To be a professional means being skilful in simplifying such chaotic processes into a simple daily to – do list. There are a thousand different variables to consider each day in and out of your training.

Focus on today’s plan and set aside the anxiety that comes with stressing about the end result. As ridiculous as it might sound, a logical end to achieve your goals is to stop worrying about them. Worrying about your goals will not increase the chances of them coming to pass. Why worry when you can take actions?

Be present with your training. Work on crushing this phase. One article after the other. Remember when we discussed multi – tasking? It’s just advisable that you focus on mastering the task at hand. Being a prolific writer looks awesome on the outside but what we don’t see is the mundane and the routine nature of showing up and being epic each day.

Write out 3-5 things that would make up your daily process routine. What do you need to hammer on? And what needs to go?

Success is exciting on the main day, but each day in training? Doing your thing at your best at practice every day? A little less glamorous.

💡 Patience

Big goals are self – motivating. The thought of it is also encouraging. However, it can also make us frustrated and annoyed when we aren’t seeing improvements quickly enough.

Herein lies one of my biggest motivation: as long as I am showing up and doing the right things every day, and executing with excellence, some seriously awesome things are coming my way.

• How am I so sure?

I can see tiny improvements.

• How am I sure that’s not all that’d come from it?

Trusting the process means I will be patient enough to see through my goals either in the stormy seas or while walking on fire.

Conclusion

As an achiever, the right thing is to dominate your process. That’s what I am doing with my commitment: to actively trust the process. Don’t be caught in the web of leaving things to chance.

I have come to realize that trusting the process will translate into:

• self – discipline;
• mastery of necessary skills; and
• transformation of self into an independent thinker.

It is a complete package.

I am committed to publishing blog posts and a weekly newsletter, the MayWeather Series. I’d like to hear what you think about this or any of my articles. Can you relate to any of my narratives? Have you ever found yourself in a new or uncertain place where you have had to trust the process and instinct in order to navigate the journey? Are you experiencing any of these at the moment? Please, share with me. Here’s my email: jibsss@ajiboladiipo.com

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