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Enjoying the Process

Summary #

When we invest in a process, outcomes become less important and have less of an impact on our happiness.

(Video: The Chief Happiness Officer)

Commentary #

One of the downsides to investing in outcomes is that we drive ourselves to believe that if I had X, then I'd be happy. This causal relationship, however, keeps us changing the target, so we're never really satisfied.

However, by focusing on the process, we accomplish two things:

  1. We are actually thinking about how to move towards a goal.
  2. We remove our dependency on the outcome, and are free to actually get there.

I am reminded of an interesting perspective on Steve Job's approach to avoiding the Innovator's Dilemma: by reducing the focus on profits, Apple was able to focus on passion—which actually produced higher profits.

See Also #