The purpose of the process isn’t to reach the goal. The purpose of the goal is to get you into the process.

My friend’s teacher.

You may not have realised it at the time, but there are many systems you have used successfully to date. To obtain a skill, any skill, you must have used some sort of system.

This means you persevered with what you thought was the right way, even though you weren’t 100% certain. It also means you likely changed things up when the system wasn’t exactly working the way you wanted, and you didn’t get the results you wanted.

This explains the concept of ‘do’ as in the way or the path that is so common in Japanese traditional practices.

You would have set yourself goals along the way, a passing mark on a grade, a personal best, perhaps even becoming number one in the world.

But what you didn’t do when the goal was reached was give up, right? You didn’t allow yourself to just give up the ghost right then and there.

Or maybe you did.

If you did so, you were focused on goals thinking, not system thinking.

If you had focused on system thinking, there’s a chance you’d still be at it. Because you know that the goal isn’t the goal. The system is the goal.

Didn’t reach your goal? Continue with the system. Reached your goal? Continue with the system.

The system doesn’t care whether you pass or fail. All the system cares about is that it exists, and that it is fed.

Systems thinking is the ‘do’.

Now even if you somehow manage to get a one-hit wonder, and you feel that your work will never live up to your previous best.

You may be right.

But the system doesn’t care.

Think about the pursuit as a ‘do’, not some isolated goal. Then the next time you feel like giving up, it’s just a temporary thing. It’s just a blip along the way.

It’s just part of the ‘do’.