process vs. completion

I recently had to write to my daughter’s teacher about “goals I would like her to work on this year.” One of the things I mentioned was that I would like her to focus more on the process of learning, rather than just on completing assignments as quickly as possible.

On reflection, I realized that this is also soooo me, (is it everyone?). I’m constantly looking to “the end,” with the process as something to get over with. I just want the job, the grade, the piece of paper, the satisfaction. And when I look deeper at what I really want, it usually is that feeling of satisfaction. The “check mark” that says it’s been done and I don’t have to worry about it anymore.

I remember my dad and brother having a discussion about being in process, while my brother was in university. My dad wanted my bro to value his educational process, and to look at university as a process of “delayed gratification.” My bro’s retort was “as opposed to premature gratification?” My brother always had a way of ending a conversation, and getting his ass out of the sling, by making my dad laugh. (Yes, I’m still bitter).

So, what’s my point? My point is that perhaps this is our natural human (cultural?) tendency. We want to “check off” life’s laundry list of activities in order to swiftly move on to the next item. We resist the process. Is it because it’s less definable? Less describable? Less valued? I’m not sure. I’ll have to keep processing this one.




   Posted in Family, Wellness, Makes Me Wonder    

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2 Responses to 'process vs. completion'

  1. Wendy - September 20th, 2007 at 8:00 pm

    Enjoy the process…what a concept. I think it is our culture to do things as fast as possible. Look at all of the conveniences that are at our fingertips to make the process faster to get to the end of whatever task we are doing sooner so we can get to the next one (and sometimes that is not a bad thing). We are no longer in an age of where we seem to take the time to “stop and smell the roses”. I think most of us take on too much and sometimes we expect our children to do the same. Look at what we do to them by putting them into as many activites as we can possibly jam into their days so that they can become productive well-rounded adults in the future. What happened to just hanging out?

    Maybe we should all make more effort to as you say “enjoy the process” of what we do on a day-to-day basis and not rush through life because it will end sooner than we think.

    Thanks for making me stop and think about this one.

  2. Yer Bro - October 6th, 2007 at 1:11 am

    Damn, and I always thought it was my “good looks” that got me out of trouble!

    But seriously, I think I’d have a tough time with convincing my kids to just “enjoy the process of learning” simply for the sake of learning. For me, to get motivated to *really* learn anything, I had to see some point in it beyond passing the test, getting a good (enough) mark, or just jumping through hoop X. I mean, who really cares how many kilojoules it takes to push a block up a 45 degree angle with X amount of friction? Unless I want to be a physics teacher, that bit of trivia is taking up valuable space in my brain!


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