Mindset Mondays: Jim Taylor — Focus on the Process

Jim Taylor is a well-known sports psychologist who has worked with athletes across Olympic, collegiate, and professional sports. His work focuses on helping performers develop the mental habits that lead to consistent performance under pressure.

One of Taylor’s core ideas is simple but powerful:

“Focus on the process, not the outcome.”

Athletes often become distracted by results — winning, rankings, statistics, or what other people expect. When attention shifts to the outcome, anxiety increases and performance usually drops.

Taylor teaches athletes to bring their attention back to controllable actions — preparation, effort, focus, and execution. When athletes concentrate on doing the next thing well — the next swing, the next play, the next possession — they stay present and perform closer to their ability.

The best performers don’t ignore goals. They just understand that goals are achieved by winning the small moments that lead to them.

For teams, this mindset is powerful. Instead of obsessing over the scoreboard, great teams focus on the behaviors that give them the best chance to succeed: communication, discipline, effort, and trust.

Pressure pulls our attention to results we can’t fully control. Focusing on the process brings our attention back to the actions that actually create success. When teams commit to the process, the results tend to take care of themselves.

Something to Think About

How do we stay focused on the process when the pressure to win or perform is high, and what are the key behaviors we need to execute consistently to give ourselves the best chance to succeed?