Forget About Setting Goals: Do This Instead!

Setting goals is essential if you want to achieve anything. However, if it the only strategy you have, it may not really work!

We all have achievements that we intend to accomplish in our lives — getting into the better shape, building a successful business, raising a wonderful family, writing a best-selling book, winning a championship, and many more.

For most of us, the path that we should follow to accomplish these things commences with setting a specific and achievable goal. Personally, I would set goals for my legal classes I took in college, for weights that I wanted to lift in the gym, and for clients I wanted to engage and do business with.

Recently, I started to realize, however, that when it comes to actually getting things done and making progress in the areas that are important to you, there is a much better way to do things.

It all tones down to the difference between goals and systems.

Let me explain.

The Difference between Goals and Systems

What's the difference between goals and systems?

• If you're a coach, for example, your goal is to win a championship whereas your system are the activities your team engages in at practice each day.

• If you're a writer like me, for example, your goal is to write a book or any literal work and your system is the writing schedule that you follow each week.

• If you're an athlete, for example, your goal is to run a marathon, and your system is your training schedule for the month.

• If you're an entrepreneur, for example, your goal is to build a successful business and your system is your sales and marketing process.

Here is an essential question that you should ask yourself:

With that in mind

Here is an essential question that you should ask yourself;

''If you completely ignored your goals, and focused only on your system, would you still get results?''

Actually, I believe you would!

As an example, as a writer I summed up the total word count for the articles I've written this year. In the last 12 months, I’ve written over 75,000 words. A typical book is about 50,000 to 60,000 words, so I have actually written enough to fill an entire book this year.

My only focus was writing one article every day, and after sticking to that schedule for 11 months, the result was 75,000 words. As you can see, I focused on my system, and the process of doing the work. In the end, I enjoyed the same (or perhaps better) results.

You now have an idea of what I am actually driving at, right?

If you are still not convinced;

Here are three more reasons why you should focus on systems instead of goals

1. Goals interfere with your current happiness.

When you're working toward a goal, you are essentially saying, “I’m not good enough yet, but I will be when I reach my goal.”

The problem with this mindset is that you’re teaching yourself to always put happiness and success off until the next milestone is achieved. “Once I reach my goal, then I’ll be happy. Once I achieve my goal, then I’ll be successful.”

Solution?

Commit to a process, not a goal!

Choosing a goal puts a huge burden on your shoulders. Can you imagine if I had made it my goal to write two books this year? Just writing that sentence stresses me out.

However, we do this to ourselves all the time. We place unnecessary stress on ourselves to lose weight, to succeed in business, or to write a best-selling novel. Instead, you can keep things simple and reduce stress by focusing on the daily process and sticking to your schedule, rather than worrying about the big, life-changing goals.

When you focus on the practice instead of the performance, you can enjoy the present moment and improve at the same time.

2. Goals are strangely at odds with long-term progress (The Yo-Yo Effect)

You might think your goal will keep you motivated over the long-term, but that's not always true.

Consider someone training for a half-marathon. Many people will work hard for months, but as soon as they finish the race, they stop training. Their goal was to finish the half-marathon and now that they have completed it, that goal is no longer there to motivate them. When all of your hard work is focused on a particular goal, what is left to push you forward after you achieve it?

This can create a type of "yo-yo effect" where people go back and forth from working on a goal to not working on one. This type of cycle makes it difficult to build upon your progress for the long-term.

Solution?

Release the need for immediate results!

Finally,

3. Goals suggest that you can control things that you have no control over.

You can’t predict the future. (I know, shocking right?!)

But every time we set a goal, we try to do it. We try to plan where we will be, and when we will make it there. We try to predict how quickly we can make progress, even though we have no idea what circumstances or situations will arise along the way.

Solution?

Build feedback loops!

Feedback loops are important for building good systems because they allow you to keep track of many different pieces without feeling the pressure to predict what is going to happen with everything. Forget about predicting the future and build a system that can signal when you need to make adjustments.

Accomplishing Goals = Planning your Systems

Fall In Love With Systems!

None of this is to say that goals are useless. However, I've found that goals are good for planning your progress and systems are good for actually making progress.

Goals can provide direction and even push you forward in the short-term, but eventually a well-designed system will always win. Having a system is what matters. Committing to the process is what makes the difference.