Don’t Set Goals. Do This Instead
You don’t need better goals, you need better systems.
We have been conditioned to believe that to achieve something substantial in life we need to set better goals.
Our results have very little to do with our goals. set yourself the most measurable goals in place and you can still fail to achieve them. Seriously how often that has happened to you? Eventually, I realized one’s success is not decided by the goal but by the systems one follows to get there. This is the only difference between the winner and a loser.
What’s the difference between goals and systems?
Goals are the targets you want to achieve and the system involves the process that needs to be followed to achieve the goal.
If we break it down further
- Goals tell you where you want to go, they’re focussed on tomorrow.
- Systems tell you what needs to be done every day, it's focused on today.
“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” — James Clear.
Let me tell you why systems are more important than goals
1. Goals create momentary change, systems instead create lifelong change
Achieving a goal only changes your life for a moment, let’s say you took part in a writing challenge and your target was to write 150+ blog posts by the end of the year. you happen to achieve your target. Now, what’s next? The motivation is gone you most probably will come back to your routine of not publishing consistently until to design a system and happen to work on it. instead, if you want to write consistently
2. Goals delay happiness; Systems don't —
Goals put you in a state of mind of postponing happiness to the future, once I'll achieve this I’ll be happy. which then cultivates an always chasing mentality. Basically, you start living in the future and not in the present when your only focus is your goal.
3. Goals don't help you with long-term progress —
The purpose of setting goals is to win the game. The purpose of setting up a system is to keep playing the game. Once you follow a system you no longer. when you fall in love with the process and continuous improvements there is no turning back. Ultimately it’s your commitment to the process that will determine your progress.
