I like doing the research to find the best bull for my operation. Pouring over data, pedigrees and videos is thrilling to me. Even if I don’t find what I’m looking for, it just gets me more excited for the next bull sale.
Shane Parrish shared a similar thought in his blog this week: “When you fall in love with the process rather than the outcome, you don’t have to wait to be happy.”
I am in constant pursuit of perfection. It’s not something I ever plan to achieve, because then what would I do with my time? But I thoroughly enjoy the process! Evaluating bulls, critiquing cows, finding reasons to cull when I’m overstocked, I could go on and on. Every day feels like progress when I’m improving my feedback loop.
Too many people in agriculture tend to base their happiness on certain milestones. “I’ll be happy when…” statements are deceiving. Mostly because they are short lived or based on false premises. The lesson: learn to find happiness in what you do, not in the results.
We live in an outcome driven world. We need to have deadlines and tangible results to show for our efforts. This is life. However, enjoying the process that gets the result is much more fulfilling.
I spend a lot of time covering this in coaching. Sayings like, “Perfect the process and the results will follow,” “Embrace the grind” and “Focus on the effort” are all valuable and useful throughout life.