Trust the Process, but what process is that exactly?
Trust the process… but what are we trusting and what is the process we are putting our trust in?
Trust the process. 222
I’m a patient person, but I wasn’t always that way. I had to practice being patient.. like every day. I also had to learn to trust the process. But the other day I realized something about myself… The process is part of the growing and learning experience. So when we say, trust the process…which process are we talking about?
Because if I’m honest, there seem to be a lot of different processes happening all at once. There’s the process society teaches us. To go to school, get the degree, get a job, climb the ladder, buy the house, have a kid, save for retirement, produce more, optimize more, be more efficient, scale, automate, make more money, and then…Repeat. None of those things are necessarily wrong…but are they life’s process? Or are they simply processes we’ve created to help organize society?
> Maybe that’s what I’ve been trying to untangle. Because the WYLD to me is… untamed, evolving, and alive. And I think that’s important because it means the process, the journey, the adventure of living life couldn’t truly have a manufactured process because every day is different. Yesterday’s version of me doesn’t automatically fit today’s experience, but in trusting the process of life we know that we change everyday. That life changes everyday, and the process itself is changing because life keeps changing.
> I think this is why “optimization” has always felt a little strange to me. Not because I think improving things is bad, or making something more efficient (work smarter, not harder vibe here) but somewhere along the way it feels like we started believing the goal was to become the most optimized version of ourselves…instead of becoming more deeply in relationship with ourselves. And I feel when we ‘optimize’ we take steps or parts out that are deemed ‘unnecessary’ but maybe that’s part of the wyld process of life. That all those small things or things we think don’t matter are actually the part of the process that is teaching us something.
I think about this a lot with health too. It feels like we’re always searching for the best workout, the perfect diet, the ideal morning routine, the supplement everyone says we should be taking, or the newest habit that’s supposed to change our lives. Again… I don’t think any of those things are wrong. I actually think we can learn so much from other people and by trying different things. But I wonder if sometimes, in trying so hard to optimize the outcome, we accidentally skip over the part that was trying to teach us something in the first place. Because I know for me, I actually love learning before I do something. I’ll read the books, ask questions, compare different perspectives, listen to podcasts, watch videos… I genuinely enjoy collecting information. I don’t think information is the problem at all. If anything, I think we’re living in a time where information has never been more accessible.
But I’ve also realized that just because I understand something intellectually doesn’t mean it’s become part of me yet. I can know something… without actually knowing it. And maybe that’s the difference.
> Information needs integration.
(I think this needs to become its own reflection because I’m realizing it’s something I come back to all the time.)
The information doesn’t disappear if I don’t use it. It almost feels like it gets stored away in a mental toolbox, waiting for the moment I actually need it. But it isn’t until I start living it, practicing it, writing about it, talking about it, or finding ways to return to it over and over again that it slowly becomes part of me. It’s no longer just something I learned from someone else… it becomes something I’ve experienced for myself.
And maybe that’s why I’ve been thinking so much about the process lately. Maybe the process isn’t just about getting us from one place to another. Maybe the process is where the integration actually happens. It’s where ideas are tested, questioned, forgotten, remembered, practiced, and slowly become part of our everyday lives. I don’t think that happens all at once either. I think it happens so gradually that sometimes we don’t even notice we’ve changed until we look back and realize we respond differently than we used to.
I also keep coming back to the little things. Maybe because they’re the easiest to overlook. We tend to think our lives are shaped by the really big moments… moving somewhere new, getting married, changing careers, becoming a parent. And of course those moments matter. But when I really look back at my own life, I don’t think those moments changed me on their own. I think it was everything in between. The conversations I couldn’t stop thinking about. The books I kept picking back up. The questions that stayed with me longer than I expected. The little habits that quietly became part of my rhythm without me even realizing it.
Maybe that’s why I don’t think the process is something we’re supposed to rush through. Not because going slower is always better, but because sometimes the thing we’re trying to hurry past is the very thing that’s helping us integrate what we’ve been learning all along. Maybe that’s why I feel so drawn to the phrase “trust the process.” Not because I think everything happens for a reason or because every outcome will work out exactly how I imagined, but because I do think there’s something about participating in life that teaches us things we couldn’t have learned any other way.
At least for me… I think that’s the process I’ve been learning to trust.
Stay curious. Stay kind. Stay WYLD.
