Introducing Systems: Focus On a Process Instead

I first of the idea of systems through Scott Adams. I think it’s only appropriate to share a quote from him.

Losers have goals. Winners have systems.

But what is a system?

A system is a set of components which form an interconnected network. This means directing your energy towards thoughts and behaviours which contribute towards a goal, rather than the goal itself.

You want to create a sustainable network.

If your goal is to achieve an amazing body, then your system would be to go to eat healthily and exercise 5 times a week.

If your goal is to quit smoking, then your system would be to fill the urge to smoke with another habit such as exercise.

If your goal is to write a book, then your system would be write 1,000 words a day.

Systems versus Goals

The discrepancy between systems and goals can be boiled down to the difference between building persistent skills and relationships versus shooting a dart at a target.

While building persistent skills and relationships is less attractive (let’s be real, your imagination isn’t going to gratify your ego as much here), it can have an extraordinary snowball effect.

Here’s an excerpt from Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford Commencement Speech which brilliantly illustrates this:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and sans serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating. None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But 10 years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts.

On the other hand, shooting a dart is a binary win or lose. If you achieve your goal, great. If you don’t, there’s no consolation prize.

In some cases, even if you achieve your goal, you can lose what you’ve achieved.

If you were gifted your dream body tomorrow without the healthy eating and exercise habits to maintain it, it’s not going to last long.

The Beauty of Systems: Unknown Opportunities

Focusing on systems will open you up to new opportunities that arise, rather than become blindsided that this one-specific goal.

For example, if you set up a system to become a better writer, and decided that you’re going to write one blog post a day — not knowing the opportunities this could lead to, you open yourself up to a multitude of different experiences.

In your journey to become a better writer, you might get discovered by a medium publication and become a writer there, your boss might find your work and give you responsibilities to write articles and you might even end up with a book deal if someone really loves your writing.

Compare this to a person who’s goal is to get a book deal. It’s just a hit or miss for them.

They might neglect writing for a medium publication because it doesn’t directly contribute to the book they’re writing currently, and for the same reason they might turn down extra responsibilities from their boss to practice their writing.

The goal would decrease their happiness in the short-term too because they’re creating an ungratified desire in themselves in addition to missing out on amazing opportunities due to their tunnel vision.

Not to mention the fact that they’re more likely to quit. Just how we quit our new year’s resolutions.

Mastery doesn’t come from an infographic. What you know doesn’t mean shit. What do you do consistently? — Tony Robbins

That being said, goals aren’t completely useless. They’re quite useful for setting a benchmark to create a system. There are also special cases where goals are useful.

If you have an unquenchable desire to become a lawyer, then you’re probably going to have to go to focus on law school. But most of us don’t know where we’re headed.

And I believe it’s awesome to live that way. I don’t know what opportunities are ahead so I can only create systems which better my life.

That means taking care of my health, improving my soft and hard skills, leaping curiously into the unknown and perhaps becoming comfortable with not knowing what’s next in my life.