We’re All in Process

“you are a season of becoming” — Danielle Doby

With each passing day, between traditional media, social media and our hyper-connected world, I feel we’re becoming more apt to celebrate dreams realized, projects completed, “overnight” successes and the highlights of life. We’re more apt to share the milestones of any given time period than we are to share the process itself, which is often more defining than the achievement.

The reality is those moments are a fraction of our entire lives, and in sharing and celebrating those benchmarks, I feel as though we lose sight of the process. We ourselves lose sight of our process. And in a time when we’re more apt to size ourselves up against others on the internet — which sounds crazy, but I believe we’re all guilty of it — we lose sight of others’ processes, too. We fail to realize the processes that carry all of us from A to B. Those processes become our lives, and as cliche as it is, the process, in many ways, is far more important than where we land.

We are in process. So embrace the process for all of its challenges and all of its little victories. Celebrate the steps along the way, and acknowledge the mountains for what they bring — however troubling and uncomfortable.

I’m very much in process. At times, getting to my goals can feel overwhelming. Realizing the importance of process and small, tangible steps, I’ve started creating weekly to-do lists. Every Sunday, I sit down, look at my goals, review where I am and write down actionable steps I can take that week — some small-but-important, some a little more meaty — to get closer to seeing those goals come to life. I look at that week and that week alone and make sure I’m not getting ahead of myself with the goals I’m setting. The focus is on what I can accomplish in a week’s time.

I’ve found the practice to be incredibly helpful. It helps me to realize that I am making progress — even on the days or weeks where I feel like I’m not. And since these lists live in my notebook, I like that they’re a journal or record of the process itself.

We are all in process. We’re “a season of becoming,” as Danielle Doby says. Stay focused on your goals, your dreams and your process. Stay true to yourself and weather the storms and the sunshine. The process comes to define us — who we are and who we are becoming.