Why SYSTEMS Work Where Goals Fail
Watch the related video on YouTube! Click the image above.
You never work directly on your goals or projects. The work you do towards any outcome are actions or tasks. When we want the task to be repeated for an extended period of time, it’s a habit. And the best way to plan for repeated tasks or establish habits is to have a system.
WHY DO IT DIFFERENTLY - WHY A SYSTEM
most goals are skewed toward habits
you never work directly on goals
many people get stuck in a loop
Most goals are skewed toward habits
I asked a “knowledgeable friend” (chat GPT) for the most common goals people set.
Out of 36 goals, 12 were straight ‘habit goals’. Only 5 were true Outcome goals (big, one-off projects) where I thought it’d be shoehorning habits into them. Most of the rest were hybrids where they were STATED as outcome goals, but they really needed habits to get there. And there were a few IDK cause I wasn’t going to spend time planning goals that aren’t mine!
You never work directly on goals
Like I just said, outcome goals often have repeated tasks for the duration of the goal. This is why you should get really good at habits by having a SYSTEM for repeated tasks, or (as well as one-off tasks.) Worry about habits FIRST.
There are some examples of things that are WRITTEN as outcome goals, but I put them in the hybrid category because while they’re WRITTEN as outcome goals, they need repeated actions or habits to either REACH the outcome or if you think about what they are really saying, the outcome stated REALLY isn’t the outcome desired.
One example is a weight loss goal. If you want to lose weight, your goal isn’t to lose weight and gain it back. Your goal is to lose weight and keep it off. The way that you do that is with healthy habits.
Same with learning to play the guitar. Unless you’re learning it for an event and then you don’t care about it any more. You need to practice to keep up the skill you’ve gained. That’s a habit.
Many people get stuck in a loop
Most people talk about coming up with a vision for your life as being the first step in goal setting, followed by mapping out plans to achieve that vision. But if you’re like me, you tend to REALLY ENJOY that part. You fall in love with GOAL-SETTING, and often don’t get around to the whole GOAL-EXECUTION step.
People say they have issues with consistency and motivation. Often one slip makes us recovering perfectionists want to go back to the drawing board and start fresh. AGAIN.
Yes, vision is important and setting big goals that align with it is great.
But if goal ACHIEVEMENT is what we want, we might need to build some execution muscle to get us there. So knowing the components of a system for building habit execution muscle should have is a good place to start.
My take on what that system needs is in the blog post and video that follow this one.