Goals vs Systems - Part 2

Last time I talked about how goals don't work and make you sad. Today I am going to tell you why systems are awesome.

Let's go back to the losing 20 lbs goal example. It's a fine thing to lose weight, so let's focus on that. Instead of choosing an arbitrary number, it would be better to speak to the underlying motivation. Let's assume you just want to be healthy and fit into a few pieces of clothing that you have from too many years ago. Now let's examine how you can get there. The obvious two things are diet and exorcise. So now, pick some simple changes in your diet (like reducing sugar intake) that you are fine with sticking to forever. They don't have to be big changes, but something meaningful. Then pick some kind of exercise routine. Maybe walking three days a week or something. Now that you have that picked out you do them. That's the system.

Now, why is this better than a goal? Especially since you might have done the exact same actions anyway?

1. Every time you do part of your system you win. There is no delayed gratification. From the first day you start the system success is within reach. You get the rush of reaching your goal every day when you go for a walk. Every time you pass up the doughnut. You are working your system and you have the confidence that the system will take you where you want to go.
2. Systems become habits and habits are easy. Once you've been doing your system for a few weeks the effort you have to put into it starts to drop off. It just becomes "what you do" and at that point you are doubly winning. You can practically go onto autopilot knowing that you are getting thinner.
3. You can change your system as you go to make it better. Say you decide after a few months that you not only want to lose weight just to be healthy, but you want to get a six pack. You can start tweaking your workout to focus on more ab work. You can get more strict on your diet to cut down on your body fat. And you can do it all without any remorse because you didn't "finish" some outdated goal that stopped fitting you six months ago.

All that being said, systems are easy, they are effective, and they are adaptable. So much better than goals.