Fair warning, I use the word “process” A LOT in this post, but I promise the message is worth it!
I hear the phrase, “trust the process”, several times a week. I hear it so often it has become cliché in my world. I understand that we all need something to believe in. We all need something to put our faith into. Here’s the thing though, why not put that faith in yourself? Why not BE the process?
To me, this phrase is a reason not to act. It’s an excuse to sit back and hope good things just happen. No matter what kind of success that you are looking to achieve, it is all going to require one thing. The common denominator any way you look at it. Success requires action. You cannot get around this simple fact. If you want to succeed you must act.
I have worked since I was eleven years old and I am twenty-four now. Every single job I have had I started out in them with a drive to succeed. I wanted to blow everyone else out of the water and be the best at whatever it was I was doing, even though I didn’t love the work.
Every single job I have had, somewhere along the line, someone has told me to “trust the process”. I would ask for more responsibility or I would show that I was eager to rise through the ranks and I would hear “trust the process”. Over and over again.
So, I did. I trusted the process at every job I had. I sat around waiting for someone to notice my drive and my desire and essentially HAND ME the success I was looking for. There are so many things wrong with that, in my opinion, but there are a couple that take the cake.
First of all, personally, I am a work horse and I am achievement driven. I don’t want anything handed to me and I never have. Another issue here is that it is teaching people that all they have to do is wait around long enough and good things will happen. All their wildest dreams will come true if they just sit there and wait for it.
If I had just trusted the process, I would not have graduated from College. I had advisors and leadership at my school of choice who, unfortunately and probably unknowingly, led me down the wrong path in my curriculum multiple times.
If I had just sat back and “trusted that process” I would have never graduated. So, what did I do? I paid attention. I asked questions. I didn’t take them at their word. I didn’t just accept what I was told.
I pushed, and I pulled until I got the answers that I needed and because of that I graduated. Granted, I graduated two semesters later than I should have because of classes I was never informed I had to take, but I graduated none-the-less.
If I had trusted the process, I would never have left any of my previous jobs. Believe me, I had ambition, at one point, during all of those stunts of employment. I wanted to be a shift leader. I wanted to be a manger. I wanted to be a top ten sales representative. I wanted to be a franchisee. I wanted to be an owner.
I had ambition for a moment. Then it faded, because those things weren’t my passion. And when it faded, take a guess at what I was told. TRUST THE FREAKING PROCESS. As if waiting long enough would somehow re-inspire me. As if that time would rejuvenate my desire to accomplish things that were just momentary goals that were the result of being fresh in a new position.
I thank God every day that I didn’t trust the process because although I have been privileged to work for several amazing companies, those occupations were not what I loved to do and eventually I became miserable in them.
I didn’t want to trust the process that was sucking the life and happiness out of me. So, I chose not to. Not trusting the process has brought me to where I am now. Yes, I am still working my income gig from 8-4:30pm Monday-Friday. However, I am working a job that, although it is not my passion, I am enjoying more than my last job. Furthermore, my commitment to my process will one day enable me to do what I love for a living.
Lastly, I want to talk about my writing. If I had trusted every process that is out there on the best way to write a book, the best way to polish a book, the best way to publish a book, the best way to promote a book, etc. I still wouldn’t be finished with my first one. Much less have it published. Much less have a second book coming out on Tuesday, Oct. 29th. Much less be working, simultaneously, on my third and fourth novels which are on track to be finished by the end of 2019. MUCH LESS have plans for at least six more novels in 2020.
Here is the point, and I know it is about time I get to the point after all of that! The point is, I chose not to trust the process. Instead, I chose to trust myself. I chose to trust my gut. I chose to trust that I was making the right choices. I chose to trust myself to commit to all the things that were necessary to build a business from nothing and yes, this little book business of mine is a work in progress, but it grows every single day because of the work that I put in. Because of my commitment to MAKE it grow and improve. Because of MY PROCESS.
So here is my encouragement for you. Screw the process. Screw your company’s process. Screw your boss’s process. Screw society’s process. Trust YOU. Be the process. Make things happen in your life! Don’t wait around hoping that something good happens.
Make good things happen! Go fast! Push hard! Even if your goal is to rise up through your company, or to excel in whatever it is you are currently doing, this still applies! Be the process! You ask your boss about a promotion, and they tell you to trust the process, good. Create a process of asking them every other week what else you can do to get yourself ready for that promotion when it comes available.
Make your own process and trust you. Here’s why. At the end of the day, there is just you. Your parents can’t do it for you. Your boss can’t do it for you. I can’t do it for you. You are the only one that can make it happen in your own life. So get on it! Get after it! Jump on it like a pit bull and don’t let go until you get what you want out of this life!
I promise to only write the word process one more time.
Be the process and go tackle the world!
Tyler Porter Books 