If you want to achieve anything, then you need to have a clear set of goals. I agree you need to know what you’re trying to accomplish. But still, this sort of behaving has its flaws and there’s a much better strategy, which is actually a lot more important. In this article, I’m going to compare goals vs systems oriented ways of thinking and getting results vs following your purpose.

Setting Specific Goals

Achieving certain outcomes requires you to follow specific and actionable steps. Every action you take will move you closer to what you want to accomplish. That’s where goals come into play.

Goal orientation is based on getting specific results. Get an A on an exam, lift X amount of weight, go to the gym Y times per week, get Z amounts of money, win the championships, write a bestselling book and so on.

Peter Drucker, the infamous business management philosopher, said: “What gets measured gets managed.” That’s the foundation to goals way of thinking. You set a specific outcome you want to achieve, come up with an action plan, then go out there to start following the steps. There’s the target, now go get it. Simple, but not always easy.

But there are some flaws to simply having goals. For instance, achieving SOMETHING doesn’t mean that that which was achieved was important. Are getting specific outcomes actually worthwhile, or is measuring them misleading you from what’s truly paramount to your greater purpose in life.

Another quote by Peter Drucker: “Doing the right thing is more important than doing the thing right.” Here’s where systems way of thinking comes into play.

Goals vs Systems Way of Thinking

What are goals? A few random examples.

Earn an annual income of 10 000

Lose 10 pounds by the end of the year

Run a mile under 4 minutes

Get a degree in college

Write a bestselling book

You can now dissect them into smaller chunks and actionable steps to follow i.e. earn 1000 every month. But those are simply more mini-goals you’ll follow specifically.

Systems, on the other hand, are different. I’ll use the same examples of goals as systems instead.

Learning and increasing your knowledge about marketing and finance, and constantly implementing them into your business is a system for getting wealthy.

Eating healthy and consistent physical exercise is a system towards losing weight and maintaining excellent body composition.

Studying, reading and self-improvement every day is a system for getting smarter and developing yourself as a person.

Practicing writing, researching, tinkering with one’s skills is a system for becoming a master writer and thus creating a bestseller.

The difference between goals and systems is that one focuses on specific results (DOING), whereas the other is based on your values, purpose and who you are as a person (BEING).

Why Focus on Systems Instead of Goals

There are a few reasons for this:

1. Goals make you less happy in the now

Wanting something and setting specific steps towards achieving them is basing your happiness on a future outcome. You’re not quite there yet, but after you get the results, you’ll instantly be fulfilled. You level up, just like in a video game, and can only then be considered a human being. Up until that point, you’re not worthy of being happy because you haven’t accomplished the goal.

The problem with this way of thinking is that you’re basing your happiness on something external. The next goal, another milestone, a specific finish line you have to cross. This will make you feel as if you’re currently inferior and need to get the achievement before you can start living fully in the present. Once you become accomplished you’ll experience a brief moment of fulfillment – a momentary feeling of bliss and relaxation. Then…meh…now what?

What’s more important is to focus on the system and enjoy the process itself. The goal or the destination itself isn’t worthwhile if you hate every moment of getting there. You have to walk the journey just for its own sake.

2. Goals can cause anxiety

Because of the same reason, goals can also make you more anxious and stressed out. If you have an impending list of goals, then you’ll want to accomplish them. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll always have enough guts or willpower to do so.

Most people who set goals fail to achieve them because they lack discipline, don’t know what they have to do nor how to do it.

Say you set out to lose 5 pounds by the end of the month. The end-result (the future you but with 5 fewer pounds) will be constantly looming in the back of your head directing your decisions and draining your willpower. I have to stay vigilant if I were to meet my goal. You made some progress the first week and everything seemed to follow its right course. However, your weight loss stalled at the last week and there’s no way you can meet your set goal. Now, what do you do? No magic formula will make those pounds disappear in an instant. You may still continue dieting (which is a systems-based approach) or you might give up completely, thinking to yourself that you’ll never be able to get the desired results. In the worst case scenario, you’ll feel remorseful, judge yourself as being worthless and then binge on junk food. Because why not…you already missed your goal.

3. Systems are who you are

But if you were to follow a system of eating healthy and focusing on the process of becoming fit, then you would’ve continued to pursue your dream body despite there being a deadline. Goals are temporary milestones you set out to reach. Systems are permanent patterns of thinking and behavior carved into your psyche.

Herein comes into importance the notion of DOING vs BEING. One is about deliberately setting out to achieve goals, the other is based on who you are as a person and what you do on a daily basis. To accomplish a goal, you have to be doing the things that allow you to do so. You can’t deliberately DO a system. A system is a process of being.

Both of them are effective ways of living a fulfilling life, as improving yourself entails transforming who you are currently – you have to DO in order to BE. Changing and changeless. Conscious and Unconscious. Two sides of the same coin.

4. Goals make you attached to the outcome

Because goals base your happiness on a future achievement, you’ll also become too attached to the outcome. I have to accomplish the target goal weight, otherwise, I’m worthless. You’ll be constantly thinking about the final result and destination.

The more you cling to something, the less congruent you’ll become. You’re trying to hold on to your life so that you wouldn’t lose this thing you’re after. It means that you fear of becoming a lesser version of yourself if you don’t have that specific outcome.

Fragile things tend to break into millions of pieces once they come into contact with another object or a force in motion. Being attached to the outcome reduces your happiness in the now and actually hinders your progress because of your analytical mind getting in your own way.

5. Systems can be updated

If you set a goal, you may fall into the trap of starting to pursue it just for its own sake. I said that I was going to lose those 5 pounds by the end of the month and I will goddammit! You begin to develop a self-image inside your head that corresponds to the final outcome. I’m the guy who makes a ton of cash. I’m the goal-getter. But because you don’t want to give up your goal and seem inconsistent to yourself or others, you’ll keep hammering through. Only losers quit, right?

Becoming too attached to the outcome can also blind you from what you truly want. Setting some goals doesn’t mean that they’re in an alignment with your core values or purpose. Achieving SOMETHING isn’t worth the effort if it doesn’t contribute to your higher cause.

That’s the beauty of systems way of thinking. You as a person are in constant motion and development. Your behavior, appearance, habits, even the neural network of your brain are plastic, which means that they’re always changing. What you do on a daily basis creates certain patterns of thinking and acting which are based on how you adapt to the surrounding world.

Goal oriented way of thinking limits you within a set range of parameters, whereas systems are self-constructed modes of being that are always aligned with who you are. If you decide to change some of your behavior, you’ll be able to do so easily because of having maintained your freedom.

Getting Results vs Following Your Purpose

There’s also a difference between getting specific results and following your ultimate purpose in life. They follow the same pattern of goals-systems.

Getting results is goal-oriented and based on achieving specific outcomes. It’s about reaching a milestone, hitting a target and getting another strike in your notebook of self-validation.

Following your purpose is about focusing on the process of DOING (notice the overlap here) and thus transmogrifying yourself into your greatest BEING. It’s about always staying on your calling, which will most definitely change in time. No worries, systems can be updated.

Do You Have to Make Goals?

Both goals and systems, doing and being, results and purpose, interlap. They contribute to each other’s existence and you can’t be entirely without one or the other. The two ways of thinking work in certain situations and I’m not trying to guide you away from ever setting goals. They’re necessary.

You’re going to have to reach certain outcomes to achieve your higher purpose. To get fit and healthy, you’re going to have to lose some weight. In order to be wealthy and financially independent, you have to earn some money. The difference is that systems free you from the outcome and are more consistent.

I’ve never been much of a goal-tracker. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a goal-getter and aspire to achieve great things. But in order to do so, I’m not checking off my to-do list, which would satisfy my ego. Instead, I’m focusing on the system of becoming the greatest being of myself. Intrinsic motivation to self-actualize is more fulfilling and purposeful.

The best advice I can give you is to establish a balance between the two. You can set some goals to keep track of your progress, to know whether or not you’re getting results or achieving specific outcomes. Use them as guidelines but don’t get too attached to them. Focus on the systems instead – the process of being the person you’re trying to be.

If you want to know how to set goals and systems and how to differentiate between the urgent and important, then check out my Empowered Morning Routine Course for optimizing your health and success.

Stay Empowered

Siim

Some Credits

Goals vs systems way of thinking has been a part of my being, albeit with some slight course-adjustments, ever since I can remember. I hadn’t named it but simply followed my nature. This specific concept under this particular name I came across in Scott Adam’s book How I’ve Failed at Everything and Thus Succeeded. He’s the creator of the famous comic series Dilbert and he follows the same mindset. Read his blog post about this as well.