Goal-Setting Doesn’t Achieve Goals. Systems Do
A Rough Week
I recently had what I’d call a rough week. My sleep was broken up, and my energy was low. Because of this, I was finding it hard to build enthusiasm about the various aspects of my day.
I look back on this week and appreciate the importance of systems. Systems around workflows. Systems around approaching exercise. Systems around diet. It sounds robotic to some, but what a week like this brought to my experience, is that when you’re struggling, your systems become a source of power. They’re the safety net that catches you when you’re falling.
It was James clear who said
- You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.
Thanks James.
So ultimately, this week was less about striving towards my goals and very much about falling to the level of my systems.
Systems In Action
When I woke up, my morning routine – a system – of meditation, stretching, journaling, and planning, got me ready for the day.
My time-blocking and single-tasking system helped me stay on task and manage overwhelm.
My systems for staying out of the inbox meant I wasn’t made even more miserable by email.
My system of reading no less than ten pages a day meant I was making progress on a personal development level, which kept me at a certain baseline level of motivation.
My 15-minute-rule – a system for maintaining momentum for writing - pushed me to keep writing daily.
Goal-Setting & Systems
This got me thinking about goal-setting.
There’s plenty of advice out there about how to set up perfect goals. Make them SMART. Make them SIMple. Make them [insert management consultant acronym here]. But there’s far less advice about the systems that sit under these goals – the day to day default actions needed to make meaningful progress.
For years my goals were SMART. They’d give me a warm fuzzy feeling as I was writing them. But within a week or two that fuzzy feeling would disappear and become a source of anxiety.
That was until I started putting systems next to each goal.
Goals give you something to work towards. Systems allow you to get to work. They remove ambiguity about what you need to do - today - with a view towards reaching your goal. The best systems allow you to become the type of person who practices the behaviours aligned with your goals. Once you focus on your systems, success of some form will ensue. Conversely, a goal without a system is no more than a statement.
And the best part about systems is that you win every day. They allow you to enjoy the preverbal journey.
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 – Scott Adams
Simply put, a system is a default set of operating procedures linked to an outcome. They’re a set of behaviours or workflows practiced over a substantial period of time. Others might call these habits, or rituals. But ultimately the terms are interchangeable when linked to a specific outcome.
Want to exercise more? Why not set up a system of laying your exercise mat in the living room before bed as a prompt to do 5 minutes each day?
Want to journal more? Why not set up a system where you journal every morning on the train into work?
Systems and Potential
The idea of setting up systems has become so central to everything I do, that I can’t imagine going through life a different way. It might make life sound monotonous, but I find the opposite is true.
It’s the systems that allow me to free the mental bandwidth to develop novel ideas and have a level of spontaneity in life. It’s the systems that allow me to stay resilient over a long period of time. It’s the systems that allow me to push myself while staying calm. Ultimately, it’s systems that drive you towards nearing your true potential.
Footnotes
1. A massive nod to James Clear. If you haven’t read his book Atomic Habits by now, I recommend it as an essential read. It’s a game-changer if you’re looking to build and break habits.
