Goals Are For Losers | Goals Vs Systems - FutureIQ

6,413 views Wait, is this logic right? • Jan 10, 2025

Slog Reference: Goals vs Systems

Description

In this episode, we talk about why setting goals might not be the best way to be happy or successful. Instead of focusing on goals, we learn about something called "systems". Systems are like daily habits and routines that help you improve and get closer to what you want, without always feeling unhappy or stressed. Goals might make you feel sad because you haven’t reached them yet, but systems help you make progress every day. Find out how focusing on systems can help you achieve everything you want in a better way!

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Deadlines Are Good For You: https://youtu.be/wx9qSiIigIw
Make 10 Years Plan: https://youtu.be/iZ8wG4bT4wg
Goodhart's Law: https://youtu.be/OU5W-b_e8a4
Karmanye Vadhikaraste: https://youtu.be/95Zi_4OthbY
Deliberate Practise: https://youtu.be/tysT6DMFGH4

Hope you enjoyed FutureIQ by Navin Kabra and Shrikant Joshi. Do hit us up on Twitter:
@ngkabra http://twitter.com/ngkabra
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Listen it on the podcast provider of your choice: https://tapthe.link/FutureIQRSS

Links:
Scott Adams quote on Goals vs Systems:
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/973029-a-goal-is-a-specific-objective-that-you-either-achieve
Goals can be toxic: https://indiauncut.substack.com/p/i-play-to-play
Goals vs Systems (excerpt from Atomic Habits): https://jamesclear.com/goals-systems
Why you need Systems not Goals: https://durmonski.com/self-improvement/systems-vs-goals/
The Best Goal is to Have Great Systems: https://www.thezag.com/systems-vs-goals/
How I lost 70lbs and learned Piano: https://www.process.st/systems-vs-goals/

00:00 Goals are bad for you?
02:05 Problems with goals
03:30 If not goals then what?
05:05 How are systems better than goals
08:29 Examples of systems and goals
10:40 How do you start creating systems?
18:40 Important Tip

#futureiq #goals #system

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Transcript

- goals are for losers goals can be toxic they eat you up from the inside goals make you unhappy they restrict your happiness these are three quotes by three famous people look them up so obviously today's episode is about why goals are bad for you and what you should have instead goals are bad for me how I mean we are always told to have a clear goal in mind when doing anything how can goals be bad let's go through the list of problems with goals okay so first goals restrict your happiness right the problem is that most of the time you have a goal and you have not achieved your goal so the goal is making

0m 43s you sad oh and then one day you achieve the goal and you're very happy and you bask in that happiness for a couple of days and then you have a new goal so your entire life is just about being unhappy at the goals you haven't achieved okay there's another more serious problem with goals okay I mean you you I imagine you saying oh you have to have goals and that's how you get winners right have you ever realized that winners and losers usually have the same goals okay oh I mean in the World Cup right there is one team saying oh I want to win the World Cup the other teams didn't come there saying I want to be

1m 28s number three or I want to be the the last right everybody wants to win the goal didn't help them get there something else does right yeah winners and losers have the same goal is such a brilliant statement so that sentence is from James Clear in fact a lot of the concepts for this episode are from James clear's book Atomic habits on this channel we talk a lot about Atomic habits we are big fans so this is uh the first in the series of uh episodes about from Atomic habits right it is goals versus systems but let's continue talking about the problems with goals yes please so a third problem with goals is that they suffer from good heart's

2m 12s law we have done an entire episode on it you should check it out it is really funny but the basic idea with good heart's law is that when you have a number as a goal now you have an incentive to cheat on that number right so if losing weight huh means oh okay my goal is that I have to hit 66 kg right then you will lose weight by doing ridiculous things like really bad things to your body and you might end up actually becoming unhealthy I've known a lot of people like that right yes yes that entire uh zero figure fat that happened a few years ago well nearly a decade ago was essentially unhealthy

2m 50s habits unhealthy diets and whatnot the fourth problem with a goal is that achieving a goal is only a temporary change right you achieved a goal now what oh as in you you immediately start thinking about the next goal you want to achieve that is if you're lucky okay a lot of people as soon as they achieve the goal they're like they start celebrating and very soon they have forgotten about everything right you hit 66 kg wait you celebrate and 3 months later you're back at 74 right I you know people like this don't you you know people like this believe me that's me he's talking about I didn't reach 66 but close enough but anyway so

3m 31s if not goals then what's the answer systems okay goals is where you want to reach right whereas a system is how to get there what do you do every day to get there okay let me give examples if you are a sports coach your goal is to make the team win the championship right your system is what are your practice methods how do you motivate the players how do you set discipline in the team right things you do every day that's your system correct if you are an entrepreneur right you start a business your goal might be to create a million dollar business yes your system is how do you come up with product ideas how do

4m 16s you test which product ideas are good what system do you have for hiring the right kind of people and what system do you have for firing the wrong people the Ops basically around the business correct and ultimately the systems have to be designed such that they're taking you towards the goal but the focus should be on the system not on the goal fair enough for a musician playing a new difficult piece on the guitar might be the goal the system is how often you practice how do you break down the difficult piece into parts that can be tackled separately what are the skills you practice and things like that I I'm getting the general drift of things

4m 54s systems is basically uh actions that you do in pursuit of the goal so to speak but then U how I understand the importance of systems how are systems better than goals so first of all to understand that systems are really better than goal uh right think about which is better you have a goal without a system and you will get nowhere right lots of people I know are in that category yeah like people who want to lose 10 kilos but don't really have a plan to do it yes on the other hand if you have a system without goals you might still get somewhere that's right right clearly systems are better than goals but why right let's try to

5m 37s understand why so Bill Walsh famous football coach right he said that concentrate on what will produce results rather than the results themselves right that sounds familiar on the process rather than the price and the score takes care of itself that sounds very familiar yes because Bill Walsh has written a book called the score takes care of itself I was about I thought you would say pH has written something similar to the bhagat Gita and he would go into K yes so Kadar it's a favorite scho of ours and you're right Bill Walsh is basically saying kadikar just like some of the greatest people in the world all pretty much give paraphrase kadikar in their own words right a great thread on

6m 27s Twitter SLX on K they we link it in the show notes in the description we already talked about the fact that winners and losers have the same goals right yeah winners and losers will not have the same systems if you look at the systems the winners will have better systems right and processes so that is important and keep in mind that when you have a goal achieving that goal is not something you can control right there is luck there is probability there is competition all kinds of things but when you have a system sticking to that system is under your control right and one thing we like to say on this channel is stick to your circle of competence

7m 13s stick to things you can control and give up the things you cannot control another episode we've done circle of competence we link it but also keep in mind that goals are like in the distant future systems are today right and our brain is a today brain okay this whole future thing just doesn't work yeah unless unless you're reading horoscopes in which case for some reason you immediately start imagining Rosy pictures of the future but we said goals make you unhappy right because at any given time you're permanently in a state of not having achieved a goal right with systems you usually are in a state of permanent achievement every day at the end of the day if you start to your

7m 59s system you feel good about yourself in fact your brain gives you a little dopamine Rush every time you uh you know complete a mini task in your system if you had a goal of hitting 66 kg that success you would probably achieve once in like probably Last 5 Years whereas intermittent fasting hdden 16 hours you achieve every day or at least four days a week right that's good right totally yeah yeah uh so that that's one example of how uh utilizing systems applies in day-to-day life the examples that been the reason I'm saying that is the examples that have been giving so far are lofty ambition examples like musician or Sports person you want examples that apply to normal people

8m 46s like you me and our listeners right yes so simple right losing 10 kg vers is a goal right exercising 30 minutes every day 16 hours fast every day eating zero junk food uh every weekday right okay things like that those are systems right getting a better job is a goal true but improving your networking is a system daily LinkedIn activity is a system right applying for jobs is a system in fact how to apply for jobs is like an entire episode in itself right which I'm going to make him do don't worry and the thing to keep in mind with goals versus system is the fact that when everything is going fine it's great goals motivate

9m 37s you and all of that right but when things go bad what happens right in theory we feel that our goal will motivate us and it'll take us pull us out of our slump right in reality that doesn't happen in reality we do not rise to our goals we fall to the level of our systems right if you had a daily system yeah in bad times you just stick to your system you don't know whether this is going to work or not but you stick to it and that keeps you at your minimum level of achievement whereas yeah rising to your level of your goals means oh I'm going to do that and bad do you can't

10m 16s yeah that's actually a very powerful way to both visualize it and understand it you rise to the level of your goals which you can't do every single time because that takes a lot of effort and you fall to the level of of your systems which is basically well you fall gravity so if you have like a system to get down to then it's always great so okay you've convinced me about the power of systems how do you start creating systems so start with your goal I'm not saying goals are really bad right okay start with a goal break it into sub goals right then break it even into finer uh pieces and for each one ask ask yourself

10m 59s what do I have to do every day to complete this sub goal let's take the example of weight loss that we've been carrying out of 10 kilos weight loss in say 3 months 6 months whatever time so one sub goal uh would be to eat less okay another sub goal would be to eat healthier a third sub goal would be to exercise yes okay so eat less then you can come up with a system Where You Are counting your calories right maybe it involves using an app for calorie counting maybe it involves just saying that I will buy smaller plates in the house there is research which shows that if your plate is smaller you take

11m 43s less and you eat less okay now I get why uh all you can eat buffet have really small plates that explains it then for um eating healthier right you could have goals like you will have have salads every day right you will not eat desserts more than once a week things like that right or you will replace all the meat in your diet with tofu right and for so on for every sub goal for exercise also instead of saying you will bench press X kgs you say I will bench press for 30 minutes every day right in fact you know other techniques are also saying that don't even put 30 minutes 30 minutes as a goal I will

12m 31s bench press every day right the 30 minutes will take care of itself over time yeah yeah so the other part of the system is that it should specify details of how ah not what you're going to achieve what you are going to do so like yeah specifying that you will bench press every day that is the how no not just that you should specify what you will do where you will do at what time will you do it and how will you do it right okay right so you will say something like that I will go to the gym at 7:30 tomorrow you should already know which gym you are going to and then you're going to bench press there right

13m 18s so all four details have to be there again James clear's book has examples showing research where people who just vaguely said I will exercise versus people who said I will exercise at 7:30 tomorrow by going to multifit gym and by doing bench press right those guys achieved much more and they stuck to the uh system also for much longer multifit being a random name for a gym we are not sponsored by them but if you want to sponsor we are happy always happy to take sponsor not only should all those details be there you should also anticipate problem what can go wrong and prepare for that right that oh I will not wake up at 6:45

14m 06s then I will not reach the gym by 7:30 so what do you do put an alarm oh I will just turn off the alarm then what do you do put two alarms the second one 5 minutes later and so on right or I I can I can feel the judgy gazes of people suffering with ADHD no also or you get a friend who also goes is going to go to the gym with you and now not only are you going to disappoint yourself but you're going to disappoint your friend if you don't show up at 7:30 and that's a more powerful motivator disappointing yourself is like you do every day right so six times before breakfast

14m 47s so that hurts n that hurts no but let me come to the good stuff please the good stuff is the system should be sustainable right right don't start with with I am going to bench press for 30 minutes because you cannot I cannot okay I mean you you can for 3 days after that you'll just give up after that I'll be in bed for 3 Days right exactly No it should be simple bare minimum I will go to the gym and come back you don't even have to do anything really yes because see what's going to happen you go to the gym you're going to do something right and anything you do is bonus because

15m 24s your goal was only to show up isn't just the part of the system part of the system uh right or but is like I will take the lightest weight and I will do 10 of those reps that's it right once you have done that for enough time and it has become automatic for your body right so that that seems no longer seems like an effort then you can up it right so now you can say well I'm going to increase the weight and every time you make some change like this give your body and your brain time to adjust to that change right and I can imagine you thinking that oh that's going to take

16m 07s forever right and yes we have an episode which points out that do not make one year plans make 10 year plans right one year plans fail because you have very high expectations of yourself and what you can achieve in one year and those are not you are not going to be able to meet them but you also have very low expectations of what you you can achieve in 10 years if you just stick to a stupid little low quality system right it turns out that just sticking with it for 10 years you'll be amazed at how much you will achieve continuous Improvement as well compounding yes so one more thing the system is that daily is easier right doing something

16m 53s daily is easier same time same place same thing right like setting a habit setting a routine weekly is also manageable if there are things in your routines where you know there are something that happens only on a Monday that's also fine but you can't do something random like every 4 days or something like that because then there're three days in the middle right you don't do it so it never becomes a habit you want to make it a habit over time you want your body to just automatically do these things right because when my son was born he would wake up at 5:50 a.m. every day like without fail that time right and this just went on for so long that even now

17m 36s he's like been out of the house for a long time but I wake up at 5:50 right still a body gets used to it so yeah that's what habits do to you uh again people with ADHD I completely understand never mind yeah H just a couple more things right uh although I said that it should be sustainable and just start with the minimum thing but yes what you should do is after it has settled down and it has become routine then you should be improving it right continuous Improvement correct the consistency and continuous Improvement is important the speed is not important you don't want improvements every day correct once in two weeks once a month

18m 18s Improvement is good enough whatever but just don't stay at one level go up a notch every time possible get someone else to tell you no tell you what needs to change you are not the best uh person to check what needs Improvement yeah like having a mentor is always useful you've discussed this in deliberate practice so that's one more thing and finally although we've been saying goals are bad but reality is that they're not that bad right goals are good I mean goals are what tell you what systems to follow so every once in a while you should revisit your goal things can change right one is that the world has changed and that goal no longer makes

18m 58s sense so if you change the goal then maybe the system might have to change another thing is that while you are following some system you might notice that some things you much better at than you thought or some things you're just not being able to do at all so depending on that you can adjust your goal right so that's another thing about the goal as in don't get fall in love with a goal you have your goals be a little malleable so you can change the goals every once once in a while revisit the goals and then change the system never risk with me I have very few goals and I don't fall in love with them another

19m 37s good quote that I want to end with please is that it is only when you make the process your goal that the big dream can follow right so goals are good as long as your goal is I will follow my process that was said by Oprah Winfrey okay yes quite a circular one that one making process the goal but but it makes sense when you think about it and that is what we encourage you to do with this Channel with the series think about it Shri Kant naen future IQ