“If you do something every day, it’s a system. If you’re waiting to achieve it someday in the future, it’s a goal…One should have a system instead of a goal.”
I really liked this blog analysis I was reading from a review of one of writer Scott Adams’ books. This crystallized for me a little why I’ve always felt a little strange about goal-setting. From his book:
“The system-versus-goals model can be applied to most human endeavours. In the world of dieting, losing twenty pounds is a goal, but eating right is a system. In the exercise realm, running a marathon in under four hours is a goal, but exercising daily is a system. In business, making a million dollars is a goal, but being a serial entrepreneur is a system.
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. The goals people are fighting the feeling of discouragement at each turn. The systems people are feeling good every time they apply their system. That’s a big difference in terms of maintaining your personal energy in the right direction.”
So to reinterpret Adams, if your goal is to lose 20 pounds and you’re not at your goal, you will somewhat always feel like you’re failing. However, if you come up with a well-thought out, good system for what you want to accomplish and implement it everyday, you will feel good as you make progress. Goals are an imagined future (which can often be important to visualize), but systems are the PRESENT and what you do everyday. Systems trump goals.