Goals vs Systems - Part 1

We are told to make goals and write them down. To make them SMART and organized. However, there are some decided downsides to goals which make me lean more towards focusing on systems instead.

Downsides to goals:

1. People aren't good at them. New years resolutions have terrible reputations for people succeeding and that is the biggest point at which goals are made in life. 90% of people fail and a full third of them have dropped it by the end of January.
2. You are always failing (unless you succeed). Think about it, if you want to lose 20 lbs you put yourself into a state of failing at your goal up until the point you succeed. But if you don't make it, even if you lost 17 lbs, you fail. That's not a good way to feel like you won.
3. It's a let down even when you succeed. When you reach a goal there is a two and a half second surge of joy and excitement followed by the realization that you have to find a new goal to possibly fail at.
4. It is a system where you institutionalize discontentment. You can't be happy unless you have this thing you don't have. And referring back to number 3 if you do get there you have to put the measuring stick further down the road and start the process all over. And if you fail, you are now just a failure.

 Don't get me wrong, successful people strive to be better in a very organized way. Some of them even do it using such an archaic and masochistic method as goal setting, but you are better than that. You can use the sure fire method that I have been using for literally DAYS.

I'll tell you more next time. You are going to find this interesting.