Fall in love with the process: Why systems are more important than goals
We all have goals in life - whether it's to be in better shape, build a successful business or spend more time with our loved ones. But we often fail to achieve them. Why? The answer lies in the importance of systems.
The Power of Systems
It is not the goals themselves that lead us to success, but the underlying processes or systems we follow. Consider the following examples:
- A coach whose goal is to win a championship should focus on how he or she recruits players, manages assistants, and conducts training sessions.
- An entrepreneur or business owner who wants to build a million-dollar business should focus his or her attention on testing product ideas, hiring employees, and running marketing campaigns.
When we focus on our systems instead of just staring at our goals, the likelihood of being successful increases.
Why goals alone are not enough
Here are four reasons why simply setting goals often lets us down:
The first is that winners and losers have the same goals: What separates winners from losers is not the goal itself, but the systems they employ.
- We usually focus on those who end up winning and wrongly assume that ambitious goals led to their success, while overlooking all the people who had the same goal but did not succeed.
- Every Olympian wants to win a gold medal. And if successful and unsuccessful people have the same goals,then the goal cannot be what separates the winners from the losers.
Secondly, achieving a goal is only a temporary change: To bring about long-term change, we need to change the systems that cause our results.
- Imagine you have a messy room and you set a goal to clean it up. If you have the energy to clean up, you now have a clean room. But if you keep the same disorganized habits that led to a messy room, you'll soon find yourself looking at a messy room again and hoping for another motivational boost.
- You are forced to chase the same result because you haven't changed the system behind it. You've treated a symptom without addressing the cause.
Third, goals limit our happiness: A goal-oriented mindset always postpones our happiness until the next milestone, rather than keeping us satisfied in the present moment.
- The implicit assumption behind every goal is this: "If I achieve my goal, then I will be happy." The problem with a goal-oriented mindset is that you're always postponing your happiness until the next milestone.?
- Furthermore, goals create an "either-or" conflict: Either you achieve your goal and are successful and happy, or you fail and are disappointed and a loser. You mentally limit yourself to a narrow version of happiness. It makes no sense to limit your satisfaction to one scenario when there are many paths to success.
Fourth, goals conflict with long-term progress: A fixation on goals can cause us to resume our old habits after they are achieved.
- A goal-oriented mindset can eventually create a "yo-yo effect." Many runners work hard for months, but immediately stop training as soon as they cross the finish line.
- If all your hard work is geared toward a specific goal, what's left to push you forward after you reach it? This is why many people find themselves back in their old habits after reaching a goal.
How to fall in love with systems
All of this is not to say that goals are useless. However, I have found that goals are good for planning my progress, and systems are good for actually making progress. In other words, to be successful and find lasting happiness, we should fall in love with the process that gets us closer to the goal we set. Here are some steps to achieve this:
- Direct your focus to systems, not goals: Use goals to plan your progress, but focus on your systems to actually make progress.
- Be happy in the here and now: Allow yourself to be happy while you work on the system, rather than postponing your happiness to a future success.
- Be open to different ways of success: A system can be successful in many different ways. Don't limit yourself to one idea of success.
- Stay committed for the long term: It is your commitment to the process that determines your progress. Keep your eye on the ball and adjust your systems as needed.
