Process Goals

A distant outcome depends on forces you cannot schedule or control. A process goal moves the commitment upstream, from the hoped-for result to the behavior that can repeatedly contribute to it. Time then stops being merely a deadline and becomes part of the method: each repetition adds another opportunity to learn, adjust, and accumulate progress. This is the practical bridge between Goals vs Systems and Gates's Law: specify what recurs, then give recurrence long enough to matter.

Following a process for ten years does not guarantee that the original ambition will be achieved. A repeatable process can be badly chosen, poorly executed, or made obsolete by changing circumstances. The principle replaces a brittle outcome promise with a controllable commitment; it does not remove the need to examine whether that commitment is still useful.