Are You Attached To The Goal Or Addicted To The Process?

With the turn of a new year comes a new page in our journal, agenda or vision board. While these are all great, I find the goals look very similar year over year. We have to ask ourselves, why are some achieving their goals and others not?

Too often I find when we are trying to make changes in our life we jump in at the behaviour level. I am going to start working out again, I am going to try new vegetarian recipes, I am going to increase my email/phone outreach by 10%, I am going to start incorporating video in my outreach, whatever it is we need to back it up a step and look at the belief.

Do we believe we can achieve this or is there a misalignment in our goal and our belief? This will stunt our action and momentum. Do we truly believe in ourselves? Can we see ourselves achieving these goals? Are we worthy of achieving them or are we somehow introducing resistance and self-sabotaging?

Why are these goals important and what will it mean to us once we accomplish them? What is the bigger picture? Is it freedom, peace of mind, status, finances, health? whatever it is embody it, see it and immerse yourself in the feeling as if you had achieved it.
Part of visualization is marrying up the image of achieving your goal paired with the feeling once you have once achieved it. This anchors or stamps the experience allowing you to return to it and re-ignite it, again and again, to keep you going.


What differentiates those who achieve their goals and those who don’t? The process.
If we are relying on willpower, it dies very quickly, we are not superhuman. The process is a system, a network of activities that we do daily to move us incrementally towards our goal.
Like a plant growing, we do not see the new chutes immediately; however one day there is a new leaf or a longer stem, being addicted to the process is the same. Put in the daily work and in time you will reap the results.

For most, the goals do not differ by much, the difference between the first and second place team is not their goals, most likely they both want to win. The difference was those who had an effective, efficient system followed and tweaked it diligently.

Goal setting is done in the conscious mind, the activities towards achieving them are in the subconscious mind. Creating new practices, putting habits in place, automating them, and moving them to the subconscious can be an uphill battle.

Stacking a new habit onto an existing habit is a great way to introduce it and increase the adoption rate, as it is paired with something you already do regularly.
James Clear’s suggestion from Atomic Habits is to leave your medication by the faucet in the morning, you will remember to take it, Mel Robbins suggests leaving your workout clothes out the night before, it is the first visual you see in the morning, which will make it difficult to avoid your workout. We don’t need to completely reinvent the wheel, let’s make this easy on us.


Every New Year like most, I increase my gym activity or in this case my home gym activity, but this year was different. I recognized if I continue to adopt the same process and mindset as last year the results will be the same, unsatisfactory. This year, I got in front of my goals. End of December, I hired a nutritionist and a personal trainer. I am not afraid to admit I don’t know what I don’t know, I need an accountability partner and I want results. The goal is the same, I need someone to support me in the process.

This time is different, I don’t look at the scale and allow it to influence my mood or have an effect on my efforts. I track and celebrate my daily physical activities, my water intake, my hours of sleep, my time outside, family time and check in periodically with the scale. The numbers are going down, however, I don’t care as much, I am detached from the goal and the numbers, my addiction is to the process. The small things that I do daily over time will have a compound effect on my health and well-being, that is where my focus is. If I keep showing up daily, the goal will come.

Throughout my experience, I see a direct parallel with sales. How often are we so connected to the deal, we will bring it across the line at all costs, even if it is not a good fit, Why?

We are operating from a scarcity mindset and are focusing only on the goal, not the process.

The goal will not change, the milestones will not change, we need to be working the process daily, solidifying behaviour changes and daily micro activities that are quietly leading us to it. We also need to be patient; this goes hand in hand with detaching from the outcome.

When we detach from the outcome we focus on conversations, not conversions, we are present, we work with people we want to not because we have to, and we have a clear and easy walk away point when there isn’t alignment.

How can we expect to close more deals when we lack an inbound or outbound process to attract new clients? What is our process, if they are an “NRN” not right now, what are the steps to nurture this prospect?

Being intentional, creating a repeatable process will support your team, your overall department, and your company. The predictable culture is stable and provides a path towards success, ensuring consistency and alignment for the entire team.

Without a process, we are leaving our success up to chance and hope, not a great way to empower your team and drive results. Give them the roadmap, start by showing them where to turn left and right, get buy-in that the process works, it is there to support them and can be updated based on their results. Feedback is critical to keep this running like a well-oiled machine.

What mindset are you starting 2022 with? Are you attached to the goal or addicted to the process?

About Karen Kelly

For 20 years Karen has been specializing in the art and science of sales and communication her passion and experience are helping technical sales professionals become more confident and to disrupt with value.

Her dedication to developing and delivering customized sales training programs provide her audience practical, relevant tools  that can be used immediately to break down the barriers in a competitive landscape and separate themselves from the noise.

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