Process Yields Progress - Part 1

Copyright (c) 2010 Nick Nanton

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Lao Tzu

I am willing to bet that almost every single one of you reading this chapter has read the above quote or had it quoted to you in the course of your life. Youre starting college and its rough somebody tells you about that first step. Youre having trouble getting a new business off the ground somebody tells you about the first step. Whenever youre at the initial stage of anything you hear about that thousand miles and that first step.

And to be fair, you cant argue with it its true. That thousand mile journey starts with that first step.

What people dont discuss, however, is the 4634th step. Or the 5489th step. When youre so far from the beginning that youre in danger of forgetting where youre going and when youre still so far from the end, you think youll never make it there.

When youre in the middle of the grind when it feels like the pay-off will never come and when you may be so tired you dont think there ever will be a pay-off thats when it can be incredibly difficult (maybe the most difficult) to take the next step.

I firmly believe that when you get to that tough slog where it just feels like youre grinding it out for no reason, thats actually when youre in the middle of the real hard work thats going to ultimately validate your efforts. This is when its most important to follow through on the process and systems youve set up and not forget what got you as far as you already are. Thats when you need to power through with your process and get what you originally wanted with it.

But lets not start with the 5489th step. Lets take Lao Tzus advice and start with the first.

THE FIRST STEP AND WHY ITS CRUCIAL

Someone who I recently learned of, and am enamored with, has become an inspiration to me and a whole lot of other people, former UCLA basketball coach John Wooden. He always had an interesting first step for his players at his first talk of the season. It probably wasnt so interesting for the seniors to hear the exact same first talk they heard when they were freshman but Wooden was a man who believed in the proper process, which is one big reason he was voted Coach of the Century by ESPN.

That first talk of the season was not about the goals for the team, who the captains would be, or any of the usual rally cries of a typical coach, nope, it was all about Wooden demonstrating, in meticulous detail, how the players should properly put on their socks and their shoes. Yes, he would actually show them how to do it. And yes, you usually dont get that kind of instruction after youre two or three years old especially from one of the best college coaches of all time. Frankly, most coaches at any level above elementary school would think it was too trivial to deal with and college boys should know how to dress themselves!

Wooden, however, knew that most good players ended up on the bench because they ended up with blisters from gameplay. And he knew most of those blisters could be prevented if players would simply take the time and put on their socks and shoes correctly.

Hence the lecture every year even to the players who had already heard it!! It was a vital first step to Woodens process and do you really argue with a guy who ended up with an over-80% win record? who won ten national championships? who is regarded as Americas winningest coach? I certainly wouldnt!

By building from that base, Wooden created teams that knew basketball inside and out. He gave them a process that enabled them to do their very best and turned him into a legendary coach.

Its what all of us need to do in our individual businesses. Your first steps, in any venture, should be about finding out what works, from the bottom up. Fine-tuning will obviously come as you continue along the way, but if you nail down the process that works for you personally, its a template that can take you to where you want to go if you learn the basics, remember them and continue to implement them.

Some aspects of that process are generic theyre essential to anyone trying to do what youre doing. Others are personal making use of your specific talents and what works best for you. Out of all of it, however, you build your own unique process by seeing whats effective and what isnt. Once you have it all put together, you drill that process into your brain at every given opportunity. And you never forget why you use the process you use because it works for you. Not for the guy down the street, or somebody two office doors down from yours for YOU!!!!

And it has to be the process thats going to serve you all the way down the line. I have to hand it to my four year-old son Brocks T-ball coach, Coach Will, because he showed me this power principle in action and how its relevant at any age.

The kid that was playing pitcher (no, really, in T-ball they have one, they just dont actually pitch!) in the game ran from the pitchers mound to run down another kid running to home plate and pulled it off. He got the out. But the coach told the pitcher thats not what he wanted to see. Thats not how the game is played. Itll work out in T-ball, but that play wont work when the kids get a little older, and a little faster. He said, You might get an out this year with that play, but were not here to get outs, were here to learn how to play baseball. Wow! Now thats what Im talking about! Coach Will wanted them to learn how to play the right way for the long run now what worked just for now so as they moved on, they could power through with the proper process.

With any first steps, you should be doing the same thing finding out how whatever game youre learning works, and how best to play it whether its the game of life, the game of business, or a true game. The principle is the same.

To Be Continued...