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by the4dpatrick 3777 days ago
> "We have to put in our best efforts and then give ourselves permission to let whatever happens to happen"

A friend once shared how surfing illustrates how having a process driven approach vs. a result driven approach is beneficial.

In surfing you start off knowing the basics of how to get on the water, standing up on the board, and riding the wave. You may know the basics, but until you actually go out in the water, you're not going to know about what will happen. The waves may not be the right size to your liking. You could be having an off day and keep falling. Or you may be having a great day on the water. All of this are factors to you actually enjoying surfing.

Instead of focusing on trying to catch a good wave or catching many waves, you can focus on the process that is surfing. This way you can make incremental improvements to how you surf. You'll then see each wave as a new opportunity to gather more experience/data for the next time you try. And you can replace "surfing" with entrepreneurship, science, and many other areas.

With this mindset, you'll be able to let whatever happens to happen. Life is too short to always be chasing after the end goal. From my experience, after you attain the goal, you'll always have another goal in mind. You will never be truly satisfied.

3 comments

This is similar to rock climbing and skiing. The commonality that I see is that they all require taking what comes at you, a random natural environment, and handling it as well as you can. They require an outward focus and quick adaptability to varying conditions, which is not so much the case for other sports like road cycling, running, and anything on an artificial surface.
Too bad I'd much rather be skiing than doing any of the very real work I need to be doing.
Life is a journey, not a destination.
Well summarized
This is exactly it. Goals will point you in the right direction, but the joy is in the pursuit.