Systems Over Goals – Why It’s Better to Focus on Systems

I think that having goals are great.

I have felt that they had always allowed me to have clearer focus and give me motivation. They also gave direction and gave me some sort of purpose in my life.

But while setting goals had been beneficial in many ways, I learned about a different system that changed the way I looked at goals and most importantly, how I approached them.

This different system is called a… system.

The Problem With Solely Focusing on Goals

When I first read the book Atomic Habits by James Clear, one of the main key takeaways was something that I initially disagreed with.

He had mentioned the idea to forget about goals but instead focus on the systems. The reason why I disagreed with that at first was because my whole life I was always taught the importance of setting goals.

It was only until I read Atomic Habits where I learned that goals are simply just that – goals. They were only simply the results that I wanted to achieve, and it states nothing about the actual processes to achieve them.

The four problems with just focusing solely on goals were mentioned in the book:

#1 – Winners and Losers Have the Same Goals

I cannot believe that this never crossed my mind.

Like when two sport teams compete against each other, they both have the same goal – to win the game.

But what differentiates the winning team from the losing team wasn’t their goal. It was the system they implemented that allowed them to achieve their respective outcomes.

The same with students in high school or university. Each student would have the same goal to achieve a specific grade. What differentiates the ones who end up attaining that grade to the ones who don’t, was their system that led them to achieve their particular grades.

It’s no different with contestants in a singing competition. I mean, of course their goal is to ultimately win the competition, but that’s not what makes every contestant different. What makes every contestant different is their system which determined whether someone won or lost.

#2 – Achieving a Goal is Just a One-Time Change

There was an example in the book that I once related to. James Clear mentioned an example of setting a goal to clean your very messy room. Once you get the motivation to tidy it all up, the room will become very clean BUT only temporarily.

If someone had maintained those habits that led to that messy room in the first place, then guess what will happen? The room will get messy again and then you need to rely on another source of motivation to clean it again.

So what happened here? It wasn’t the goal that was the problem, it was the system. Although the goal allowed the short-term accomplishment, if we wanted the result to be maintained, we needed to maintain a good system.

It’s the same with going through a weight-loss transformation. Finally achieving that goal is just a one-time change, but if we wanted to maintain that so we don’t fall back into what we don’t want, then it’s the system we would want to focus on maintaining.

Just like with ensuring that we don’t fall back into sloppy habits that would lead to another messy room, we ensure that we don’t fall back into unhealthy habits that would lead to the body that we don’t want.

#3 – Goals Restrict Your Happiness

I was guilty of this one before. So when Clear mentioned the mentality behind every goal being “Once I reach my goal, then I’ll be happy”, it was like a slap on the face.

I was guilty of putting off my happiness until I reached a certain goal.

Like in high school, I told myself that I can only enjoy everything else if I achieved a certain grade in an exam. Or if I was able to clear up my skin, then I’ll finally be confident in myself.

So doing this was basically telling my brain that I didn’t deserve to be happy unless I accomplished my goals. I was basing my self-worth off the goals that I did or did not accomplish.

That’s where systems come in. Since systems are ongoing, even after you reach the goal, you can always be satisfied where you are at. I mean, while I don’t think that studying is fun, as long as I maintain my system of studying consistently and improving the way I do so, then I can be satisfied. I don’t have to wait until all exams are over for me to be “happy”.

#4 – Goals Contradict Long-Term Progress

Before, once I accomplished a certain goal through consistent habits and progress, I end up going back to old habits since that goal is not there to motivate me anymore.

This is similar to Problem #2 where once we accomplish that one goal, we fall back into old habits which would lead us back to where we started.

Just like the example provided in the book where someone would train their hardest for a race, but once that race is completed, they go back to old habits.

The same with winning a sports game, once the season is finished, then the players may sometimes go back to old eating and training (or no-training) habits.

That’s where we can see the difference between a goal and a system. The goal is to win that game BUT the system is to continue with those habits that led to that win.

The same with achieving a desired weight goal – the goal is to attain that result BUT the system is in maintaining those habits that led to that accomplishment.

How Systems Are a Major Contributor to Our Accomplishments

It’s safe to say that since I kept mentioning systems, it’s time to go further more on how they work.

So since we already know that goals refer to our desired results, systems refer to the processes that allow us to achieve those results.

Just like if I had a goal to become a songwriter, becoming a songwriter is my desired result, but the way I write lyrics and produce the music for those songs will be my systems.

Same as if I had a goal to be a professional fashion designer. Becoming a fashion designer is the goal, but the way I experiment with creating clothes and practice my sewing skills are my systems.

It’s also no different with one of the most common goals there is – getting into shape. Getting into shape is just the end result. Our eating habits and exercise routines are the processes to get to that result.

I was concerned for a second that by ignoring my goals and just focusing on my systems, I wasn’t going to achieve my desired results. But when you think about it, when you’re focused on improving and maximizing your systems, the result would end up taking care of itself.

Pretty much, systems are the antidote (I stole this fancy word from Atomic Habits) to the problems of goals, lets mention them again briefly:

#1 – Systems Differentiates the Winners and Losers

As mentioned above, since winners and losers have the goal in common, it’s the system that they implement that differentiates them.

If both teams just forgot about the goal and just focused on their systems – one team would have implemented a system of the way they conduct practice, recruit players, and train them. The other team would have implemented a system of just training once a week and just winging it on the day of the game – who do you think would win?

If two contestants in a cooking competition focused on their systems and not their goal – one contestant’s system involves maintaining a plan on what they are going to cook, and how they are going to cook it, and the other person’s system involves just getting a bunch of ingredients and hope for the best – who is most likely to win?

#2 – Systems Allow Us to Maintain the Goals We Already Accomplished

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#4 – Systems Help Us in the Long-Term

I combined #2 and #4 together since they are both very similar ideas.

Pretty much systems allow us to keep going regardless on whether we had accomplished our desired goal or not.

Lets take two singers who both released songs that became a major hit. After that, one singer just stopped working hard now that they’ve got one hit, while the other singer focused on writing more songs and generating more hits.

As you can see in the above example, once a goal is accomplished, it doesn’t just stop there. Systems allow room for even more further accomplishments if we keep doing what have helped us accomplish that goal.

They give a lot of opportunity to make long-term progress.

#3 – Systems Help Us Be Satisfied No Matter How Far or Close We Are to Accomplishing Our Goals

While goals had restricted us from being satisfied until we had accomplished them, systems allow us to be satisfied no matter where we’re at.

I mean, imagine having a goal to build a profitable business. Lets say it was going to take about six years for a business to be profitable, would we really restrict ourselves from happiness for six years if that’s how long it was going to take to accomplish that goal?

Even though we don’t have to love every second, and not even necessarily be passionate 24/7 about the process of it, we still have to do it in order to accomplish that goal – even if it’s going to take a long period of time.

Goals and Systems Work Closely Together

Even though it’s better to focus on our systems rather than our goals, we still need the goals.

We need the goal to give us the direction of our system, and to help us remember why we have those systems.

Ultimately, we cannot accomplish the goal without the system, and we cannot work on a system unless we have a goal (like what’s the point of having a system of writing something random if there’s no goal?).

We need both to work together to attain the results we desire. Once we have the goal, we work on the systems, and let the system take care of the goal.

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