Goals vs Systems
Most people think it's important to set goals.
Start a business, lose weight, get a promotion, spend more time with family... At the turn of the year, it's common to hear people setting these kinds of generic goals.
And if your company does annual performance reviews, it's time to document whether you were successful—and of course set new goals as you start the cycle all over again.
But I don't think goal-setting is how people become successful. I believe success is a result of habit. Without good habits, goals are just wishes, gradually forgotten about as we get farther away from January 1.
To be successful, build good habits. To build good habits, design better systems.
If a goal is the "what" then a system is the "how".
As productivity guru James Clear puts it, "goals are good for setting direction, but systems are best for making progress."
Say the goal is to start a business; one [overly simplified] system could be to write down three problems every day. To spend more time with family, create dinner together Tuesday nights.
As a writer, my system is to share one idea once per week. If I set a goal to reach 5,000 subscribers it might feel like I'm in a perpetual state of failure until I hit that goal, and then what? I feel happy for a day and set a new goal to hit 10,000 subscribers? In contrast, I feel like a winner every week I write a new story. I learn something new. I get better at my craft. I'll probably experience the positive side effect of reaching 5,000 people one day, but my happiness does not depend on it.
Yes, setting goals is necessary to know where we're headed. But I think it's even more important to design systems and build good habits that inevitably get us closer to achieving those goals.
Besides, it is not always the destination that makes us happy, but the journey.
As you think about your goals for next year, what system can you design to build good habits?
Have a good week,
Anthony
Work Smart, Lead Better
Ideas on strategy, collaboration, mental fitness.
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