Systems and Goals
Table of Contents
“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” - Atomic Habits
Short-term goals can be useful developmental tools if they are balanced with a nurturing long-term philosophy. Too much sheltering from results can be stunting.
What are they?
- A goal is something we want to achieve; usually relating to long term objectives or changes.
- It is needed to establish a goal in first place in order to build a system around to accomplish it.
- e.g. getting into better shape, building a successful business, relaxing more and worrying less, spending more time with friends and family
- A plan is how we achieve the goal.
- Once we know the “What” and the “Why” next step is to build up to tools which will answer the “How”.
- The system is the daily time blocks and tools we use to implement the plan and achieve the goal.
- Really our system should grow out of our own attempts to get better at what we are trying to do. It’s not like we can build a system from day one and have it work. Little decisions and actions build up to a “system” that supports our goals.
#+begin_quote Goals determine our direction. Systems determine our progress. #+end_quote>
Usually, the results we see in our life have very little to do with the goals we set and nearly everything to do with the systems we follow.
Differences
- If we do something every day, its a system. If we are waiting to achieve it someday in the future, it’s a goal. - How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life - Scott Adams
- Goal-oriented people exist in a state of continuous pre success failure at best, and permanent failure at worst if things never work out. Systems people succeed every time they apply their systems, in the sense that they did what they intended to do. The goals people are fighting the feeling of discouragement at each turn. The systems people are feeling good every time they apply their system. - How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life - Scott Adams
Why goals alone do not work?
- Achieving a goal is only a momentary change.
- Achieving a goal only changes our life for the moment. That’s the counterintuitive thing about improvement. When we want to change the results related to anything in our life, what we really need to change are the systems that cause those results. When we solve problems at the results level, we only solve them temporarily. In order to improve for good, we need to solve problems at the systems level. Fix the inputs and the outputs will fix themselves.
- Goals are inflexible.
- They lock we into a fixed outcome as we try to navigate a complex, changing world.
- Goals can encourage unethical behaviour
- Research in corporate settings have shown that while goals might boost performance, they can also lead to lower engagement and unethical behaviour. See links in Origins & Resources below for more.
- Goals make us a failure, most of the time.
- When we set a goal we are immediately positioning ourself in ‘failure state’ until we reach it, which can be a draining, even demoralising place to be. Happiness was always something for my future self to enjoy.
- Goals create an “either-or” conflict: either we achieve your goal and are successful or we fail and we are a disappointment. With goals there is the potential to not meet them, to fail, and on my self-distructive days that seems unavoidable.
- Goals feel either so lofty they are daunting or so low-ball they seem mediocre or even belittling.
- Goals fall under that category of things we sometimes are compelled to share/brag about and it is easy to then feel pressured about attaining them, which adds an element of negativity.
- Winners and losers have the same goals.
- Often, we concentrate on the people who end up winning—the survivors—and mistakenly assume that ambitious goals led to their success while overlooking all of the people who had the same objective but didn’t succeed.
- Goals are at odds with long-term progress
- When all of our hard work is focused on a particular goal, what is left to push us forward after we achieve it?
How systems will help?
True long-term thinking is goal-less thinking. It’s not about any single accomplishment. It is about the cycle of endless refinement and continuous improvement. Ultimately, it is our commitment to the process that will determine our progress.
By contrast, systems are more immediate choices, processes and habits. They are the daily routines that might not have a fixed outcome or goal but they help us improve or move forward in a broad direction that we value.
Adams explains: “With a system, we are less likely to miss one opportunity because we were too focused on another. With a system, we are always scanning for any opportunity.”
When we fall in love with the process rather than the product, we are satisfied and happy everytime our system is running.
Focus on the journey, and let the destination look after itself.
- Systems encourage us to focus on daily and ongoing systems rather than on long term and distant goals.
- Systems reward the past, efforts accomplished, but have a built in hope for the future (continued efforts)
- systems feel less binomial since any effort is an accomplishment though more effort is, well, more.
- systems also seem to feel increasingly rewarding over time without that pesky failure trepidation.
Examples
- If you want to climb a mountain, don’t just obsessively dream about the view from the mountain top. Instead, be an obsessive climber and let the rest take care of itself.
- You might want to commit to specific systems or ones that lend themselves to be adaptable and better set you up for success. So, rather than saying you will jog every day, you might commit to being physically active every day which provides more flexibility and is more achievable.
- Rather than having a goal of writing a novel, you could focus on a system of writing something, anything, for an hour every day. Doing this might lead you to write a book, but alternatively might lead to writing a successful blog or syndicated magazine column, thus resulting in a future where you are happy but never bother publishing a book after all.
- If you’re an entrepreneur, your goal might be to build a million-dollar business. Your system is how you test product ideas, hire employees, and run marketing campaigns.
- If you’re a musician, your goal might be to play a new piece. Your system is how often you practice, how you break down and tackle difficult measures, and your method for receiving feedback from your instructor.
If you completely ignored your goals and focused only on your system, would you still succeed?
Yes.
Read: The Score Takes Care of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership by Bill Walsh , Steve Jamison , Craig Walsh
Books
- The Score Takes Care of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership by Bill Walsh , Steve Jamison , Craig Walsh
- Atomic Habits by James Clear
- Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives by Gretchen Rubin
- How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life - Scott Adams