{"id":16764,"date":"2019-11-19T04:00:08","date_gmt":"2019-11-19T10:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?p=16764"},"modified":"2019-11-17T09:56:58","modified_gmt":"2019-11-17T15:56:58","slug":"trust-the-process-change-the-process","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2019\/11\/trust-the-process-change-the-process.html","title":{"rendered":"Trust the Process\u2026 Until It\u2019s Time to Change the Process"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I promise this post isn\u2019t about football.<\/p>\n

The 2008 Detroit Lions were the first team in NFL history to go 0-16. Unsurprisingly, head coach Rod Marinelli was fired at the end of the season. When asked what he would do differently, Marinelli said \u201cNothing. We did the right things in the right way. It just didn\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marinelli was wrong, but he wasn\u2019t as wrong as you might think.<\/p>\n

In the long run, having a plan and sticking with it usually brings better results than bouncing from idea to idea or path to path. It\u2019s one thing to try things on to see if they fit. But I\u2019ve seen countless people whose lives are, if not exactly ruined, far less than they could be because they bounced from career to career, partner to partner, or \u2013 as I often rant against here \u2013 religion to religion.<\/p>\n

The same is true in other areas of life, both individually and in groups and organizations.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A wise man learns from his mistakes \u2013 a fool will learn no other way<\/h1>\n

Our ancient ancestors learned a few things over the years. This animal is good to eat, that animal will eat you. This plant will make you feel better, that plant will make you sick. This method of making fire works most times, that method only works occasionally. It was the job of the elders to pass accumulated knowledge down to younger generations so they didn\u2019t have to figure out everything on their own.<\/p>\n

This practice of tradition<\/em> didn\u2019t end with writing, or civilization, or with the rise of the scientific method. There are special schools for those who want to learn the best practices of art, music, or writing. Art may be a nebulous field that requires the presence of the Awen, but we know from centuries of practice that some techniques are better than others, even if \u201cbetter\u201d simply means \u201cmore suited to a particular purpose\u201d and not \u201cobjectively superior.\u201d<\/p>\n

So Rod Marinelli was right. Your best chance of winning \u2013 whatever winning means in your particular situation \u2013 is to follow best practices diligently and consistently. You may encounter random setbacks, but over time randomness will even out.<\/p>\n

Most times.<\/p>\n

Lust of result<\/h1>\n

Artist Austin Osman Spare (1886-1956) is one of the originators of chaos magic. His method of creating sigils<\/a> turns a written goal into an unreadable sigil and plants it in the magician\u2019s subconscious. That lets the subconscious \u2013 and whatever the subconscious is connected to, a topic beyond the scope of this post \u2013 work to manifest the goal without the conscious mind disrupting things due to \u201clust of result.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lust of result has been likened to opening the oven door every few minutes to see how a cake is rising, when the very act of opening the door and injecting cool air into the hot oven is a prime cause of cakes falling.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Trust the process<\/h1>\n

\u201cTrust the process\u201d is recent sports clich\u00e9, used mainly by coaches and general managers trying to rebuild a bad team from the ground up. It acknowledges that there will be short-term losses and encourages players to keep working toward a long-term goal\u2026 and encourages fans to keep buying tickets.<\/p>\n

Trust the process recognizes that progress takes time and effort, and reminds everyone that having a plan and sticking to it is almost always better than jumping from method to method or path to path. It takes time to turn a losing team into winners, to make a start-up business profitable, or for a magician to go from beginner to adept.<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t like to hear \u201ctrust the process\u201d in part because of lust of result \u2013 we want to win and we want to win now. And occasionally we see something like the \u201cworst to first\u201d 1991 Atlanta Braves or the \u201cmiracle on ice\u201d 1980 U.S. Men\u2019s Olympic hockey team. Sometimes we get lucky. Other times, though, what we see ignores all the years of work in the background that enabled \u201covernight\u201d success.<\/p>\n

And sometimes, success doesn\u2019t come on a nice gradual incline \u2013 sometimes success is a step function<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You are what your record says you are<\/h1>\n

Bill Parcells \u2013 another football coach \u2013 was once asked if his team that was hovering around the .500 mark was \u201ca good team.\u201d Parcells\u2019 response was \u201cyou are what your record says you are.\u201d If your record says you\u2019re a mediocre team, then you\u2019re a mediocre team.<\/p>\n

Now, I\u2019m a Unitarian Universalist who believes in the inherent dignity and worth of every person, regardless if they\u2019re \u201cwinners\u201d or \u201csuccessful\u201d or even if they\u2019re not what we would consider a good person. Failing means you tried and it didn\u2019t work, not that you yourself are<\/em> a failure.<\/p>\n

But if you have a goal or a mission, either you\u2019re doing it or you aren\u2019t. You\u2019re winning games or you aren\u2019t. You\u2019re building an effective organization or you aren\u2019t. You\u2019re making progress or you aren\u2019t. To quote a different sage from a different genre, \u201cdo or do not. There is no try.\u201d<\/p>\n

Traditions don\u2019t just tell us what to do. They also give us some idea of how long it should take to do it. Turning a football program from losers to winners usually takes three to four years. If you aren\u2019t seeing progress by then, your process isn\u2019t working and it\u2019s not likely to work if you keep at it.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why Rod Marinelli got fired. What worked in other times for other teams wasn\u2019t working for him, and the team\u2019s owners decided to go in a different direction.<\/p>\n

Wisdom for hard decisions<\/h1>\n

Choose your goal. Study those who came before you. Make a plan. Stick with it, even when things get tough. Even when it looks like you aren\u2019t getting anywhere. Trust the process.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the simple part. It\u2019s not easy \u2013 nothing of value ever is. But it\u2019s simple.<\/p>\n

But what do you do when what you were taught, when what those who came before you built, isn\u2019t working? How long do you trust the process? When do you have to admit that your record says you aren\u2019t what you want to be? When do you decide you need a new head coach?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the hard part.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I promised this wouldn\u2019t be about football, and it\u2019s not.<\/p>\n

But I\u2019m looking around and I\u2019m seeing a lot of people who need to trust the process, who need to make a plan and stick with it, who need to abandon their lust of result and just do the damn work.<\/p>\n

And I\u2019m also seeing a few others who need to look at their record and accept what it says, who need a new plan, a new process, a new head coach.<\/p>\n

What about you? What about your religious path, your spiritual journey, your political approach? What about the organizations you participate in, or lead?<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t tell you which category you fall into. I can\u2019t tell you whether to put your head down and keep slogging through, or to fire your coach and try something new.<\/p>\n

I can tell you that if you aren\u2019t happy with your current situation, you best start trying to figure it out.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I can\u2019t tell you whether to put your head down and keep slogging through, or to fire your coach and try something new. I can tell you that if you aren\u2019t happy with your current situation, you best start trying to figure it out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1129,"featured_media":16779,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[272],"tags":[2823,1110,2826,4,5,2820],"class_list":["post-16764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-2","tag-austin-osman-spare","tag-bill-parcells","tag-lust-of-result","tag-pagan","tag-paganism","tag-rod-marinelli"],"yoast_head":"\nTrust the Process\u2026 Until It\u2019s Time to Change the Process<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I can\u2019t tell you whether to put your head down and keep slogging through, or to fire your coach and try something new. 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