I have just finished reading a great book “Atomic Habits” by James Clear. Not only is his background story amazing but his simple and effective strategies allow you to achieve what you have always wanted to achieve and simply given up on.
I wanted to give you a bit of a reflection on one of his key insights.
Prevailing wisdom claims that the best way to achieve what we want in life – getting into better shape, building a successful business, relaxing more and worrying less, spending time with family and friends – is to set specific and actionable goals.
For many years, this is how many of us have approached habits. Each one seen as a goal to be reached. We set goals for the grades we want to get in school, for the weights we want to lift in the gym, for the amount of weight we want to lose, for the profits we want to make in our business. We may even succeed at a few, but we also fail at a lot of them. What we need to come to terms with is that results have very little to do with the goals we set and nearly everything to do with the systems we follow.
So, what is the difference between systems and goals?
Goals are about the results you want to achieve.
Systems are about the processes that lead to those results.
- If you’re a coach, your goal might be to win a championship. Your system is to recruit players, manage your assistant coaches and conduct practice.
- If you’re an entrepreneur, your goal might be to build a million dollar business. Your system is how you test product ideas, hire employees and run marketing campaigns.
- If you’re a musician, your goal might be to play a new piece. Your system is how often you practice, how you break down and tackle difficult measures and your method for receiving feedback from your instructor.
So now for the interesting question - if you completely ignored your goal and focused on your system alone, would you still succeed? For example, if you were a basketball coach and didn’t think about winning the championship, but purely focused on your team at practice every day – would you still get results. I think maybe you would!
The same is true of life – if we want better results, we must start focusing on our systems rather than our goals.
This is not to say that goals are completely useless, but systems are best for making progress.
Some problems arise when you spend too much time thinking about your goals and not enough time designing your systems.
Problem#1 – Winners and losers have the same Goals.
Every Olympian wants to win a gold medal. Every candidate wants to win the job. And if successful and unsuccessful people share the same goal, then the goal cannot be what differentiates the winners from the losers. The goal is the same, but it is the system that gets the outcome.
Problem #2 Achieving a goal is only a momentary change
Imagine you have a messy room and you set a goal to clean it. If you summon the energy to tidy up, then you have a clean room – for now. But if you maintain the same sloppy habits – then your room will be back to being a mess in no time at all. You are left chasing the same outcome because you never changed the system. Achieving the goal only changes your life for that moment in time. We think we need to change our results, but in fact the results are not the problem. What we really need to change are the systems that can cause those results. Fix the inputs and the outputs will fix themselves.
Problem #3 – Goals restrict your happiness
The implicit assumption behind any goal is that once I reach my goal “I will be happy”. The problem with goal first mentality is that you’re continually putting happiness off until the next milestone. But when you fall in love with the process instead of the product, you don’t have to wait to give yourself permission to be happy.
Problem #4 – Goals are at odds with long term progress
A goal-oriented mindset can create a yo-yo effect. Many runners train hard for months, but as soon as they cross that finish line, they stop training. The race is no longer there to motivate them. When all your hard work is focused on a particular goal, what is left to push you after you have achieved it. We therefore often find ourselves reverting to bad habits after we have accomplished our goal. The purpose of setting goals is to win the game. The purpose of building systems is to continue playing the game.
So, if you are having problems changing your habits, the problem isn’t you. The problem is your system. You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your system.
Habits are like the atoms of our lives. Each one is a fundamental unit that contributes to your overall improvement. At first these tiny routines seem insignificant, but soon they build on each other and fuel bigger wins that multiply to a degree that far outweighs the cost of the initial investment. This is the meaning of “atomic habits” – a regular practice or routine that is not only small and easy to do, but also the source of incredible power; a component of the system of compound growth.
Want to know more about developing the systems that build the foundations for great habits? Contact Michelle on 0412047590 or via email michelle@bakjacconsulting.com
Michelle Bakjac is an experienced Psychologist, Organisational Consultant, Coach, Speaker and Facilitator. As Director of Bakjac Consulting, she is a credentialed Coach with the International Coach Federation (ICF) and a member of Mental Toughness Partners and an MTQ48 accredited Mental Toughness practitioner. Michelle assists individuals and organisations to develop their Mental Toughness to improve performance, leadership, behaviour and wellbeing.
