Happy Wednesday, Wise Owl Nation!

At the end of every year I tend to look back and analyze how the year went.

Obviously 2020 is a bit of a weird year, but the process of analyzing how I did is still an important one.

When I first started this practice in my early 20s I often found myself annoyed at the end of the year because my results never felt good enough. I never felt like the work I put in led to the outcomes I expected.

Eventually, however, and by eventually I mean multiple years later I realized that the work I had put in years before had started paying off. This set off a light bulb moment for me that aligned with many of my Stoic beliefs. Your results are often out of your control, but the work you put in is completely under your control.

I needed to stop focusing on the results, and instead stay laser focused on the process. If I focus on the process, eventually, the results will show themselves.

How do the best athletes in the world stay calm under pressure? They put in the work. How could Michael Jordan keep shooting clutch shots despite having missed thousands of them in the past? He put in the work, focused on the process, and the results ended up speaking for themselves.

Process over results. That is the theme of this week's issue.

Read on and let's discuss.

You can find all past issues (including this one) here.

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🧠Wisdom Tip of The Week: Process over Results

So what does "process over results" mean in practice? It means making the best choices for yourself over and over again regardless of what happens.

I'll give a few examples.

Example 1 - You want to get better at Poker, so you pick up a poker book and start reading. Over time, you decide you want to spend at least one hour a day studying poker. You also decide you want to spend one day a week playing poker to test your skills. The first four weeks in a row you end up losing money. You know, based on your studies, that you made the right choices most of the time while playing.

Do you stop playing just because you lost money? No. You keep studying and keep playing to practice making as many correct decisions as possible. You don't focus on the results, you focus on the process of improving yourself.

Eventually you start winning more and more.

Example 2 - James Harden is a professional basketball player. He specializes in scoring a ton of points, and specializes in shooting 3-pointers. In 2018, in the NBA finals his team missed 27 three pointers in a row. That is devastating.

Did he focus on the misses? Or did he focus on the work he'd put in? James Harden gave an inspiring interview after that loss, telling the reporter that he trusts the work he's put in, and will continue putting in the work to get better.

Example 3 - Brandon Sanderson is one of the best-selling fantasy authors to ever live. He's written dozens of books and has hit the New York Times bestseller list multiple times.

What you rarely hear about are the first dozen books he wrote that were never published. Brandon was obsessed with his craft of writing and storytelling, so he kept on writing, kept telling stories, and eventually, after failing in writing a DOZEN BOOKS, he was finally published!

Now, 8 years later, he has sold over 18 million copies of his books worldwide. Whoa.

The point - You have goals, hopes, and dreams. We all do. What separates the successful from the failures, are a few simple things. Time, effort, and consistency.

Those that succeed focus on the process of improving themselves. They never give up, and over time get better and better until, as Steve Martin is famous for saying "I got so good they can't ignore me anymore."

🥑 A Healthy Process over Immediate Results

In college I ate terribly. I remember telling one of my mentors that "I might as well eat like this now, while it can't affect me." I remember the look of incredulity on their face as they struggled to explain to my dumbass 19-year-old self that I might not look like someone that eats like crap, but that doesn't mean it isn't destroying my health.

She was right. I couldn't tell at the time, but I was slowly gaining weight. Slowly ruining my sleep schedule, and my grades started to suffer.

As I said in the intro of this newsletter it took many years for me to figure out that health is a lifestyle. It is a process by which I try to lead my life, knowing that the results won't become obvious to me for years to come.

Exercise should be a daily process. Your body needs to stay strong in order to be at its healthiest. Don't get into the habit of living a sedentary life. Get moving.

Eating nutritious foods should be a daily process, whether you cook it yourself or order out. Nutritious food will keep you healthy, improve your mood, give your energy, and extend your life.

Proper sleep should be a daily process. Sleep is the number one determinant of your over mental and physical health. If you get eight hours of sleep and still feel like crap, that just means you need more nights of eight hours of sleep.

Meditation should be a daily process. Meditation is one of the healthiest mental activities you can do, and yet, it is one of the hardest activities to notice results from. So most people quit meditating before it truly starts helping them. So...drum roll please...focus on the process. Not the results.

If you can create a healthy process for all four of these areas, you will become a fit badass in the future. I promise.

💲 A Wealthy Process over Immediate Results

Friends. Wealth takes time. Period.

I do love Naval Ravikant's quotes. He tells it like it is.

Wealth takes time, and really starts to flourish if you are consistent with your process.

What are the only four ways to build wealth? I've said it about a thousand times by now.

1. Reduce your expenses
2. Increase your income
3. Pay off debt
4. Invest

When you reduce your expenses below your income, you create a "gap of opportunity" that creates excess cash. With that excess cash you pay off your debts and invest.

The amount you are able to invest is directly related to how large your "gap of opportunity is."

So follow that four-step process. For years. Eventually you will become wealthy.

But let me tell you another secret. There is a process to focus on, and results to ignore for each of those four steps.

Expenses - Some months it will be hard to reduce expenses and you won't be able to as much. Focus on the process, not the results.

Income - Increasing income is hard. The easiest way I've found is to get a new job at a new company every few years to make sure you are getting market value for your experience. But the best way is to create multiple streams of income.

Debt - Debt usually takes years to pay off, and it can be scary and daunting deal with. Don't focus on what you owe. Focus on your strategy to pay off that debt.

Investing - The best strategy for investing, is to put money into an asset (like an index fund) on a consistent basis, then forget about your returns in the short term. Don't pull your money out. Be consistent over time. Compounding takes years and years to pay off.

Let me tell you a story about how terrifying it was to hold onto my Crypto between 2017-2019.

I started buying Crypto in 2017. At the end of 2017, Crypto skyrocketed. Bitcoin went from $4000 a coin to $20,000 a coin in a matter of a few short months. It was absolutely insane.

Then in 2018 it cratered back down, hitting a low of about $4000. The same thing happened with Ethereum. It went from $200 a coin to $1400 a coin! Then cratering back down in spectacular fashion.

There was a point where I was down on my investment by 60%. That means that at one point, every $10 I had put in was worth $4. Seriously.

Fortunately for me, this happened at a time in my life where I was emotionally much stronger than I had been in years past, and I was able to focus on my investment process, not the results.

Now, I can happily say that the results are taking care of themselves. At this point every $10 I have put in is now worth $30. But do I plan on taking that money out? No.

I am focusing on my process, not my results, even when my results are good.

This was my simple process:

• Every week I buy a specific amount no matter what the cost is
• The amount I spend on Crypto is money I do not need, and am okay with losing
• I do not sell, ever, because I believe in the fundamentals of Crypto

Quotes of the week:

The process gets you the results eventually. Focus on that process, be consistent, and the results will happen.

Have a great week!

This concludes our issue this week, I hope it gave you some perspective or injected a little motivation into your life!

If it helped, let me know! I read every newsletter response I receive, and I absolutely love hearing from all of you. This newsletter is for you, so I need your help to make it as great as possible.

If you'd like to show me some love for writing all this free stuff, you can always buy me a coffee.

More Resources

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