The Practicing Mind: Developing Focus and Discipline in Your Life Master Any Skill or Challenge by Learning to Love the Process

by Thomas M. Sterner

Once I bought the car, it was somewhat of a letdown compared with the anticipation of owning it that I had experienced while I was working toward the purchase.

Keep yourself process-oriented. • Stay in the present. • Make the process the goal and use the overall goal as a rudder to steer your efforts. • Be deliberate, have an intention about what you want to accomplish, and remain aware of that intention.

In reality, we all know that cars are

terrible investments that depreciate faster than anything else, and that when we purchase a new one, we spend most of our mental energy worrying that it will be stolen or damaged in the local mall parking lot.

Try this the next time you are faced with doing something you define as unenjoyable or as work. It doesn’t matter if it is mowing the lawn or cleaning up the dinner dishes. If the activity will take a long time, tell yourself you will work on staying present-moment and process oriented for just the first half hour. After that, you can

hate it as much as usual, but in that first half hour you absolutely will not think of anything but what you are doing.

What is required is that you are aware of what you want to achieve, that you know the motions you must intentionally repeat to accomplish the goal, and that you execute your actions without emotions or judgments; just stay on course. You should do this in the comfort of knowing that intentionally repeating something over a

short course of time will create a new habit or replace an old one.

The real thrill of acquiring anything, whether it is an object or a personal goal, is your anticipation of the moment of receiving it.