Trust the Process...Not the Moment

Trust the Process... Not the Moment.  I have had to remind myself of this phrase a little more than I would like too lately.  The reminder is not because I don't believe it, it is because at certain moments, I forget it is just a moment.  A moment is fleeting, temporary, and easily replaced or enhanced.  It is the process that matters.  And the process after all is a collection of varied moments tied together, right? When I was with my team from Mount Vernon co-facilitating a 2-Day #DEEPdt (i)gnite workshop at the CDC last month, oh the moments we had. Yet, it was the process that sticks with me like sweet honey. That is, the process sticks to me now, but there was a moment on Day 1 that kept me from experiencing, learning, and moving on to the other moments.  I had lost my trust in the process.  I stayed in a past moment, and I could not get past it.  I was letting a moment in this workshop prevent me from seeing the forest.   It wasn't until two hours later when Day 1 concluded in cheers, excitement, high energy, and bubbles of ideas did I remember.  In a moment, I can lose confidence in the outcome because I forget to trust to process.  In a moment, I can lose confidence in myself.  

As a design thinker, if I trust my users to lead me to a solution, how can I not trust my users in the process? The moment at the CDC I got caught up in was a moment of doubt.  My users did not believe in that moment the power of design thinking and its process. So it was in the next moment, I lost confidence and forgot.  It truly took to the last minutes of the day to regain my confidence and remember that the mess of design thinking eventually gets cleaned up and the whole of those many moments brings about so much learning, growth, forward motion, and for the most part more opportunities for change.  

 I have written about process before on this site, here and here and HERE so I obviously know its about the process.  Yet, as in life we have been told that a moment can define us (at least the great speeches, entertainment, and well my brain tells me so).  I just need to keep reminding myself, God did not put me on this earth for a moment, but instead for a life to live which is a whole lotta process. It's that dash between two dates... It is in that dash you will find the process, not just a moment.