Process over product

My daughter called me this morning as she was walking to one of her design labs at the University. I was happy to hear that things are going well for her. However, she was frustrated. When I asked why, she explained that one of her professors gives the class a weekly project that takes about three hours to complete. However, her frustration wasn’t because of the time it takes to complete the projects. Instead, it was that the professor randomly grades them. So, she is stuck doing all this work, but never knows whether the professor will even look at it. 

I told her that this professor sounds amazing because they are preparing her for life. What my daughter doesn’t understand about life is that the result of your work is not nearly as important as the work itself. One of my close friends works in marketing. He spent six months putting together a proposal and entered a competitive situation to earn a very large contract. He didn’t get the job. It’s not at all different than the professor randomly grading work produced. Sometimes you do your best work and don’t get recognized. You still must keep on forging ahead. 

She wasn’t thrilled with the answer, so I explained it in a bit of a different way. A top-level athlete trains with maximum effort consistently for years, gets to the Olympics and then doesn’t get a medal. Was the training a waste? Were they wasting their time because they lost? Not at all. Anyone who believes that has a victim mentality.

Regardless of your goals in life, the outcome isn’t guaranteed and shouldn’t even be the overarching focus. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t have goals. Quite the opposite. I think you should have goals that stretch you so far outside your comfort zone that you’ll likely fall short. What I am saying is, set the goal, but then focus on the daily activity it will take to reach the goal. The reward is found within the process of working towards your goal. If you focus on the process, the goal should take care of itself; whether it’s graded or not.