The Power of Process Goals: Improve Your Results
Understanding the power of process goals and how to implement them can improve your journey and results. And while I speak often about my experience in triathlon, this holds true regardless of the goals you are reaching for.
I love achieving my goals. Over recent years, I have been pretty consistent with my 13-week planner to hold myself accountable. The beautiful thing about the BestSelf planner is that you get to set goals for each month, week, and day. Essentially you work backwards breaking down your macro goals into meso and micro goals – like building a house, you lay the foundation for what’s to come.
Learning to ride my triathlon bike in aero position was a big milestone for me. For those of you who may be new here, riding aero refers to when a cyclist lowers their body and adjusts their bike setup to reduce drag or wind resistance. This assists with increasing speed and efficiency.
I was never really afraid to ride my bike – I have been riding since I was a child. But it’s funny as we age, and we start to foresee every possible accident (at least I can). When I was younger, I would ride with no hands, ride on handlebars and pegs, and honestly, I don’t think I ever considered the idea of crashing and getting hurt. But as an adult, every gust of wind, every turn, pothole, and passing car makes me question my ability to keep from crashing on my bike.
While preparing for my race season, I often bike at a park near my home. I feel safest there. A few years back, as I warmed up to the idea of riding aero, I would place one arm on my aero bar and keep the other hand on the top bar. I would practice moving my arms closer to the center of my top bar, resting on the arm pads. But not fully gripping the aero bars out front. It was a little dance back and forth that helped me increase my comfort level.
And then finally I went for both aero bars and rode for about 10 seconds in that position. I did it! You’re damn right I text a few people that day to share in my excitement.
That may sound like a silly story, but it’s how it went down for me, and I was honestly so happy. I was proud of myself, my confidence boosted, and I felt like a real triathlete. Side note – if you race any distance triathlon on any type of bike, you are absolutely a real triathlete! Celebrate yourself!
I’ve had many little celebrations like this along the way in my triathlon journey. Grabbing my water bottle on the bike, swimming in open water without a wetsuit, learning to go to the bathroom in different scenarios (iykyk), nailing my nutrition in training, upping my FTP (functional threshold power, a measurement used in cycling), solid nights of sleep…so many things!
My goal is to help you understand process goals and reasons to celebrate all of the steps along the way. Let’s get to it.
WHAT ARE PROCESS GOALS & WHY ARE THEY IMPORTANT?
A process goal is a specific action or behavior that you commit to completing regularly or consistently in order to achieve a desired outcome. Unlike outcome goals, which focus on the end result, process goals concentrate on the actions you need to take to get there.
For example, a process goal might be to complete every workout in your program for the week. This gets you closer to your end result on race day. Another one might be to include three servings of veggies and two servings of fruit each day to help you reach your nutrition goals.
Process goals are important for several reasons. They allow you to focus on what you can control. They are about your actions and behaviors, rather than the result. This helps you avoid feeling discouraged by external factors that you can’t control.
By breaking down large goals into smaller, manageable tasks, process goals make progress more achievable. This incremental progress contributes to moving you closer to your desired outcome.
Consistently working towards your process goals helps to establish positive habits. Over time, these habits become automatic, increasing the likelihood of long-term success. Speaking of habits, if you are looking for a great resource for establishing new ones, check out the book Atomic Habits by James Clear.
Process goals provide a sense of accomplishment as you complete each step, which can help maintain motivation and momentum towards your larger objectives. Additionally, if you’re not making progress towards your outcome goals, process goals allow you flexibility to reassess and adjust your approach. You can tweak your actions and behaviors to improve performance without abandoning your ultimate objectives.
Overall, these are vital for effective goal setting because they provide a roadmap for achieving success, help build habits, maintain motivation, and allow for flexibility and adaptation along the way. My approach is to begin with the end in mind and work backwards from there. Of course, you need to know where you want to go so you can plan your steps. But the steps are the key!
THE IMPORTANCE OF CELEBRATING WINS
In triathlon, we spend hours, days, weeks, and months preparing for our A (priority) race. We may only have 4-6 races in an entire year! Of course, I do have some friends out there who seem to race every other week. But if you’re a triathlete, our season tends to run from April through October/November – give or take some time depending on where you live and the seasons. If you race sprint distance, you can of course fit in more events.
That’s a lot of time prepping – we train during the off season, build in the pre-season, and have time between races to maintain our fitness and make some tweaks here and there. If you are only waiting to have a celebration when you cross the finish line of your A race, it can have an impact on your motivation and confidence.
Psychological benefits of celebrating milestones
When you give yourself smaller targets along the way, it can boost your motivation to perform. Throughout my training blocks, I will have FTP tests, CSS tests (critical swim speed test to measure your fitness in the water), and 5K time trials mixed in. It’s a chance for me to reassess my thresholds and adjust training accordingly. It keeps me consistent in my training and motivated to see continued progress throughout the season. Even if I take two seconds off my 400m swim time, that’s worth celebrating!
Celebrating milestones through your process goals helps to reinforce positive behaviors. I’m not saying you need to buy yourself a new bike when you hit a progress goals – but hey, if you have the means to do so, go for it! But a new visor or shirt after weeks of consistent training sessions? Totally fair.
Another benefit to these mini victory celebrations is that it provides a sense of accomplishment. It can validate your training and push you to continually up your game.
How celebrating wins fuels further progress
Every time you have a win and then set your sights on the next target; this creates continual momentum.
Keep in mind, there will be moments when you approach a milestone, and things don’t go exactly as planned. This is an opportunity to learn and pivot. But each time you hit a milestone and continue to make progress towards your end goal, this helps to increase your confidence.
Enhanced focus and determination are another huge benefit of progress goals and celebrating your wins along the way. When you are only focusing on the big picture, it can seem so far out of your grasp. Dialing in to bite-size wins can have a big impact.
PRACTICAL STRATEGIES FOR CELEBRATING WINS
All of this information is great, but the goal is to put this into action. Make a true effort to acknowledge and celebrate your small victories. Take some time to think about your next big goal. Work backwards and think through all of the steps along the way. What habits can you create? Perhaps there are some habits you need to break.
Reward yourself appropriately! What have you wanted to treat yourself to but haven’t? Whether it’s getting a pedicure, a new kit, sunglasses, transition bag, race photos…whatever! You know your budget and what is realistic. You deserve the treat.
Share your success! I used to struggle with this one. I didn’t want it to seem like I was gloating or full of myself. But I’ve come to a point where I’ve learned that I should celebrate the heck out of myself. Be your cheerleader! The most important person you can learn to love and to spoil is yourself. So let the world know – or at least a few close friends and family – about your wins.
The last step in celebrating your wins is taking the time to reflect on your progress and growth. I know I bring it up often, but the BestSelf journal makes this so easy to do! (PS – I am not sponsored by or connected to the BestSelf journal in any way.) Every week, you have the opportunity to reflect on what you set out to accomplish. And then you get to set new goals. At the end of the 13 weeks, you reflect on your three major goals. It really is a great way to take inventory of what is working and what needs to change. The journal also prompts you to reward yourself after the 13 weeks!
FINAL THOUGHTS PROCESS GOALS
Life is about challenging yourself, getting uncomfortable, and showing yourself what you’re made of. And worst-case scenario, you fall short of your goals, and you learn from them. Fail forward. I am learning to embrace and accept this mindset. I have spent many years thinking I had to be the best at whatever I set out to do. And I still work towards that. But I know my best doesn’t necessarily have to be the same 100% every time. My best also doesn’t mean I have to be in first place or better than the person next to me!
Something I’ve been saying a lot lately while coaching is the idea that if today you woke up feeling 45%, give it 45%! Because that is today’s 100%. And when you still make the choice to show up for yourself on the days that don’t feel perfect, you are building strong habits and consistency. If you missed one of my earlier posts on staying committed to your goals, make sure you check it out!
As always, I’d love to hear from you if you have questions or could use additional support in your training. It’s your journey, your pace, and all my support.
