Focus on systems instead of goals

tags:: Productivity Goals on/systems
author:: James Clear
Source

Goals are only useful insofar as they change your actions, so they only indirectly lead to the result you're after.

Your results are not dependent on your goals. They have nearly everything to do with the systems you follow. Forgetting goals and only focusing on the systems will still get you results.

Name three reasons why a systems focus trumps a goal focus.

You stay focused on the actions to take
You can be happy throughout the entire process
It's more durable for long-term progress

Problems with Goals

Winners and losers have the same goals

Ambitious goals do not lead to winning.

Achieving a goal is only a momentary change

Imagine you have a messy room and you set a goal to clean it. If you summon the energy to tidy up, then you will have a clean room—for now. But if you maintain the same sloppy, pack-rat habits that led to a messy room in the first place, soon you’ll be looking at a new pile of clutter and hoping for another burst of motivation. You’re left chasing the same outcome because you never changed the system behind it. You treated a symptom without addressing the cause.

Achieving a goal only changes your life for the moment. That’s the counterintuitive thing about improvement.

Goals restrict your happiness

Goal focus pushes you into an if-then mental model (see Spiritual Quest - Srikumar Rao). If you achieve your goal, you can be happy. Not earlier, and not if you fail.

Desire is a contract you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want. (Page 138)

A systems-first mentality provides the antidote. When you fall in love with the process rather than the product, you don’t have to wait to give yourself permission to be happy. You can be satisfied anytime your system is running. And a system can be successful in many different forms, not just the one you first envision.

Goals are at odds with long-term progress

When you achieve the goal, there's nothing left to keep you training. This can create a "yo-yo" effect.

The purpose of setting goals is to win the game. The purpose of building systems is to continue playing the game. 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 your commitment to the process that will determine your progress.

I’ve found that goals are good for planning your progress and systems are good for actually making progress.