Process Over Results: How To Stop Raging and Start Improving

Threw three perfect darts at treble 20, got a 26, and now you're pissed off enough to throw your next dart through the wall? Your friend just hit double 16 on a garbage throw while you've missed it five times with perfect form? Welcome to the mental trap that destroys more dart players than bad mechanics ever will: results-oriented thinking.

The Problem With Caring About Results

Here's the brutal truth: You don't control where your darts land. You only control your process.

"Wait, what? I'm literally throwing the dart. Of course I control where it lands!"

Not entirely. You control:

• Your setup consistency
• Your tempo and rhythm
• Your focus and engagement
• Your mechanical execution

You don't control:

• Slight variations in dart flight (manufacturing tolerances, air currents)
• Random muscular micro-variations (you're not a robot)
• Board bounce-outs and robin hoods
• Whether your "perfect" throw hits treble 20 or the wire

The paradox: The more you focus on results (hitting the target), the worse your results get. The more you focus on process (executing your throw correctly), the better your results become.

What Happens When You Get Results-Oriented

The Anger Spiral

Bad result → Anger → Tension → Worse throw → Worse result → More anger

Sound familiar?

When you get pissed about missing a shot, here's what happens physiologically:

• Adrenaline spikes (fight or flight response)
• Muscles tense up (especially forearm and shoulder)
• Heart rate increases
• Fine motor control degrades
• Decision making suffers

All of this makes your next throw objectively worse. You're literally sabotaging yourself by caring too much about the last result.

The Comparison Trap

Your opponent just hit a double on a throw that looked like garbage - bad setup, lunged at it, got lucky. You missed the same double with perfect mechanics.

Results-oriented thinking: "This is bullshit, I threw way better and he got rewarded for a terrible throw!"

Process-oriented thinking: "I executed my process correctly. Over 100 throws, my process will outperform his. This single result is noise."

Getting angry about short-term variance is like a poker player going on tilt because they got bad beat with pocket aces. The math is on your side long-term, but you'll never realize that edge if you tilt and start making bad decisions.

The Golf Lesson: Focus On The Swing

If you've ever played golf, you've heard this a million times: "Focus on your swing, not where the ball goes."

Why? Because the ball flight is the result of your swing. You can't directly control the ball. You can only control your setup, tempo, and swing path. Execute those correctly and consistently, and the ball goes where you want it to on average.

Same with darts. The dart landing is the result of your process. Control your process, let the results take care of themselves.

Bad golfer: Hits a bad shot, gets pissed, swings harder/differently on next shot, makes it worse

Good golfer: Hits a bad shot, analyzes what went wrong in the swing, makes adjustment, moves on

Great golfer: Hits a bad shot, recognizes it was good swing with random variance, doesn't change anything, trusts the process

What To Actually Care About

Instead of getting angry about results, evaluate your process:

Good Throw Checklist

After each throw, ask yourself:

✅ Setup: Did I raise the dart slowly and deliberately to my setup position? ✅ Pause: Did I pause briefly to prevent rushing? ✅ Elbow: Did my elbow stay locked in position throughout the throw? ✅ Backswing: Was my backswing controlled and consistent? ✅ Release: Was the release smooth and natural? ✅ Follow-through: Did I follow through toward the target?

If you checked all 6 boxes, that was a PERFECT throw regardless of where it landed.

You executed your process correctly. Over time, perfect execution = perfect results. But on any single throw, randomness plays a role.

The 80/20 Result Filter

When evaluating your throw:

20% of the time: Results matter

• You lunged and got lucky hitting treble 20 = bad throw, don't repeat
• You rushed your setup and missed = bad throw, as expected

80% of the time: Process matters, results are noise

• Perfect execution, hit the wire = good throw, keep doing that
• Perfect execution, nailed treble 20 = good throw, keep doing that
• Opponent got lucky on garbage throw = irrelevant to you

Judge your throws by execution, not outcome. The outcome will converge to match your execution over time.

How To Stop Getting Angry

1. Reframe What You Control

You can't control: Where the dart lands on this specific throw

You can control:

• Setup consistency
• Tempo and rhythm
• Mental engagement
• Mechanical execution

Focus 100% of your mental energy on what you control. Let go of the rest.

2. Zoom Out Your Perspective

Getting angry about one throw is like a stock trader panicking because the price dropped 0.5% in the last minute. Meaningless noise.

Zoom out:

• This throw is 1 of 60+ in this game
• This game is 1 of 10+ today
• Today is 1 of 365 days you'll play this year

One bad result is statistical noise. Your process over 10,000 throws is what matters.

3. Celebrate Process, Not Results

When you execute your process perfectly:

• Give yourself credit even if you missed
• That was a successful throw in the only way that matters
• You're building the consistency that produces results long-term

When you hit your target with bad process:

• Don't celebrate, you got lucky
• That success is unsustainable
• You're reinforcing bad habits if you reward random results

This sounds crazy, but it works. Reinforce process execution, ignore results.

4. Opponent's Results Are Irrelevant

Your opponent hit a lucky double on a terrible throw? Good for them. Completely irrelevant to you.

You're not competing against their results on this single throw. You're competing process vs process over the course of the match. Superior process wins long-term.

Getting tilted because they got lucky is results-oriented thinking that only hurts you. Their garbage throw doesn't make your process worse - but your anger does.

5. Use Anger As A Process Signal

If you feel yourself getting angry, use it as a diagnostic:

Anger = "I'm thinking about results instead of process right now"

The anger itself becomes a reminder to refocus on your checklist. "Oh, I'm pissed about missing. Let me evaluate: did I execute my setup correctly? Yes. Did I control my tempo? Yes. Okay, good throw, move on."

Anger becomes useful feedback instead of a destructive spiral.

The Poker Player Mindset

Professional poker players are the best in the world at process-oriented thinking. They make the mathematically correct decision every time, knowing that short-term results will have huge variance.

They can make the "right" play and lose. They can make the "wrong" play and win. But over 10,000 hands, correct process crushes incorrect process, and results converge to match expected value.

Poker pros think:

• "Did I make the correct decision given the information I had?"
• "Was my bet sizing optimal?"
• "Did I manage my emotions and avoid tilt?"

Bad poker players think:

• "I lost that hand, I suck"
• "He got lucky, this is rigged"
• "I'm going to play differently to chase my losses"

Be the poker pro. Focus on your decision process. Let variance do its thing. Trust the math long-term.

Process-Oriented Practice

When practicing, completely divorce yourself from scoring results:

Practice Goal: Process Consistency

Don't practice like this:

• "I'm going to hit 10 treble 20s in a row"
• "I need to average 60+ this session"
• "I'm going to hit this checkout"

Practice like this:

• "I'm going to execute my setup ritual perfectly on 100 throws"
• "I'm going to maintain consistent tempo for 30 minutes"
• "I'm going to stay mentally engaged on every single throw"

Track your process execution rate, not your score.

The Process Tracking Exercise

Throw 30 darts at treble 20. After each throw, grade your process:

✅ = Perfect process execution ⚠️ = Process deviation (rushed, lunged, autopilot, etc.) ❌ = Complete process failure

Goal: 25+ checkmarks out of 30 throws

Don't look at: How many hit treble 20

If you executed perfectly on 28/30 throws but only hit treble 20 five times, that's a successful practice session. Your results will catch up to your process.

If you hit treble 20 on 15/30 throws but only executed correctly on 10, that's a bad session. You're reinforcing inconsistent process with lucky results.

Competition: When Results Do Matter

"But in a match, I need to hit the double to win. Results literally matter."

True. But even in competition, you can only control your process. The mental approach is:

Setup → Execute → Accept

1. Setup: Run your ritual, commit to full engagement
2. Execute: Throw with perfect process
3. Accept: Whatever happens, happens - immediately move to next throw

You can't will the dart into the double. You can only execute your process and trust it. Caring intensely about hitting the double doesn't make you more likely to hit it - it makes you tense, which makes you less likely.

The competitor's paradox: The players who care least about the immediate result (and most about their process) win the most.

Results Come From Process, Not From Wanting Results

If you want better results:

1. Define your process (setup ritual, tempo, mechanics)
2. Execute that process consistently
3. Trust that results will converge over time
4. Ignore short-term variance and outcome-based emotions

You can be angry at bad process execution. That's useful - it means you're holding yourself to a standard.

You cannot be angry at bad results from good process. That's just variance, and tilting about it only makes your process worse.

The Bottom Line

Results-oriented thinking: Judge each throw by outcome → get angry at variance → tense up → worse results → more anger → spiral

Process-oriented thinking: Judge each throw by execution → ignore variance → stay calm → consistent process → results improve over time

Stop caring about where this dart lands. Start caring about whether you executed your process correctly.

The darts don't know you're angry. The board doesn't care about your emotions. Your opponent's lucky shot has zero impact on your mechanics.

Control your process. Let go of results. Win long-term.

---

Related Guides

Mental game essentials:

• Why You Miss Easy Shots - Pressure creates conscious interference
• Stop Aiming, Start Throwing - Trust subconscious execution

Building a process you can trust:

• Why You Can't Perform In Games - Wall drill builds process consistency
• The Four Stages of Learning Darts - Stage 4 execution is automatic

What a good process looks like:

• Your Setup Position Matters More Than You Think - Consistent pause point
• Why The Pause Matters - Confirmation checkpoint