I was watching an interview with Kobe Bryant where he talks about his workouts and approach to basketball. When asked if he ever gets nervous and what he does about it, he says, “the results don’t really matter” and that it’s much more important to focus on the process of improving every day. Moments like game winning shots come and go (even if you make them, the points go back to zero the next day) but the thing you can control is yourself.
That got me thinking about how focused we should be on results in everyday life. It’s easy to ignore results in basketball (at least short term) which has clear win/lose criteria (a literal scoreboard), but other domains not so much.
Still, experimenting and adjusting the underlying systems and processes that drive results feels like the right lesson about being productive when under enormous pressure to deliver. How people respond to the pressure in a productive way (like Kobe) makes a difference.