the fundamentals of goal achieving [2/4]

2. Focus on a system: In his book How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life, Scott Adams talks about using systems instead of goals. For instance, losing 15 pounds is a goal whereas learning to eat right is a system. If we get the system right and get habituated with eating right, then accomplishing the goal of losing weight will become easy. In the same sense, doubling our productivity and income is a goal; preventing distractions, increasing our focus and doing deep work is a system. One thing that we need to always remember is: Systems Trump Goals. No matter what our goal is, we need to make sure that we have a system in place for that and then monomaniacally focus on the system, not the goal. In essence, we need to implement systems to help us keep sticking to the processes that we have set for ourselves. Adams writes in his book: “Goal-oriented people exist in a state of continuous presuccess failure at best, and permanent failure at worst if things never work out. Systems people succeed every time they apply their systems, in the sense that they did what they intended to do. The goals people are fighting the feeling of discouragement at each turn. The systems people are feeling good every time they apply their system. That’s a big difference in terms of maintaining your personal energy in the right direction.”