I was watching the woman’s 400 meter relay and heard one of the announcers say, “she really learned to just trust the process.” He seemed to indicate that was her reason for success. I will grant that claim, I suppose, but what is the process?
I imagine for an Olympic athlete there is a well defined process that is created for the team, for each athlete and this is well prescribed, or at least I hope so. I imagine that winning teams all have this characteristic. But what about the rest of us?
This phrase, trust the process, has become popular these days. I saw someone in a hotel lobby with black t-shirt with the phrase printed in white letters. After looking around it seems this become popular with the Philadelphia 76ers and the coach Sam Hinkie. If that is the origin of this phrase, then it is pretty hilarious because the process did not seem to work all that well. Well, I guess you can consider the number one draft pick they got one year as a success. Rather funny, he gave himself the nickname, “the process.”
Whatever the origin, people seem to like this phrase. I have heard it in business settings as well. Do not worry, you will get some sales, you need to trust the process. Just as with Hinkie and the 76ers, it is easy to hide behind this supposed process, but really, what exactly is the process?
What do you do when you do not know the process, understand the process, or even have a process to follow? Do you still, trust the process, even though there is no process? It seems that is what people are asking you to do most of the time.
After some contemplation, I think this phrase would be better stated as “try the process for 90 days.” That is probably more appropriate. Identify a process you think will get the results that you want, then try following this process for 90 days. If you like the result, continue, if you do not then try a new process.
