Mind Your Own Process!

In a generation where we are all about instant gratification, the term process is all but forgotten. We want it right here and now. Trial and error or playing the long game have almost become a taboo.

On the other hand, social media has done this generation good because the people we look up to and or role models I feel always stress the importance of “enjoying your process’’ as the key to reaching the top, so in a way it’s made us understand and feel the need to recognize that for us to bear fruit, there has to be a large amount of labour.

This is the part where it all gets tricky, personally I feel as though we have picked up on the trend and understand that there has to be some sort of a process in reaching our goal. My question is “are you really enjoying that process?’’ the ups and downs, ebbs and flows, Injuries and frustrations that are packaged with it? Or have you used social media to want us (the followers) believe that you are enjoying your process as a façade to make yourself believe your own narrative?

See cause then you’ve got to ask yourself some questions regarding your motive, what is your why? (Yes I get that you are competitive) You and the hundreds of thousand other Athletes worldwide. The reason why I say “Mind Your Own Process” is the classic example of If you can do it, why can’t I?! Problem here is that firstly you don’t even know what process never mind how long the person you’re trying to stack yourself up against has been doing it for, yet coming back to our generation and wanting instant gratification we expect to be on par if not surpass that individual. Rookie move, slow the hell down and Mind Your Own Process.

What needs to be understood is that in the history of stats or any competitive sport, no single individual has ever had the same starting reference point. So how can I possibly even try to measure myself against someone who has a completely different genetic makeup (levers, skeletal structure, pain threshold, and training age) then my favourite “how quickly they picked up the skill in comparison to you?”

It may work for you personally when it comes to acquiring your goal, but one thing I can guarantee is that you’ll be miserable and have many sleepless nights going about improvement that way. 9 times out of 10 the individual doing it that way really has no interest/love for the sport, they’re doing it for the status that comes it being a high profile competitor.

So I’ll leave you with two questions that I hope get you thinking.

If your chosen fame couldn’t provide you with the means to live well or any sort of fame, would you still relentlessly pursue it?

If we had no social media as if we were back in the late 90’s and early 2000s, would you really be so caught up in how your competition or everyone else is improving?

Unlikely….

Mind Your Own Process!

V.Mashego