Systems Over Goals

"The purpose of goals is to win the game, the purpose of systems is to continue to play the game"

James Clear, Atomic Habits

It is the answer to a question I didn't know I had or didn't know how to phrase. Over the years people would mention that everyone should have higher goals or a vision for their life, such as owning a house, travelling the world and other such feats. Yet those ideas somehow didn't stimulate my own personal "want" or "desire" meter.

Atomic Habits made me realise that I was in need of a strategy to continue playing the long term game, way after the results were reached, instead of boasting a collection of completed goals without context or meaning.

Goals serve as a good tool to measure whether you are close to or missing the mark of how you want to play the game of life. They are also useful for setting a direction and help attain desired results and outcomes. However, in a world where the definition of success is infinite, goals narrow your options for success and limits your ability to feel satisfaction day to day. Ultimately it diminishes the opportunity to feel happy with yourself and maintain healthy levels of self-esteem.

How can that be?

Many of us get tangled up in the idea of "I'll lose 10kg, and I'll be happy" or "I'll pass this exam and I'll be happy" or even "I'll wake up early tomorrow and I'll be happy that I can be productive" - but what happens after? What's the next step? it's rarely a case of "and they lived happily ever after"

This is because when a goal is set out, we usually have a linear idea of how success will be attained. We're rarely ready for or expect set backs along the way because we don't want to experience failure, rejections or criticism.

Once a set goal is completed a sense of emptiness looms and, unless you set the next goal straight away, dragging right behind it are old and comfortable habits. The example used by James Clear in Atomic Habits, in the case of a runner who stops training and lets themselves go as soon as the big race is over is a good illustration of this idea. The motivation to continue training and eating healthy shirks as soon as you cross the finish line until the next big race.

This sort of stop - start state can be a tormenting state to be in continuously and one that puts strain on willpower, taking up a lot of effort.

A long list of goals encourages you to forever delay happiness, which is not a destination to begin with. Building systems that are in line with your identity liberates you from holding on to a narrow idea of happiness, being able to celebrate your worth along the way instead of at the end of results.

The 10kg loss, the exam nor the early morning mean much as stand-alone events. As everything in life it requires context. Context is the relationship to the system of beliefs that you hold about everything and the environment you are in. Ultimately it all contributes to shaping your identity.

Systems designed to serve you allow you continue training after a big race without having to stop and to feel continued satisfaction at whichever point you are in your system - the beginning, somewhere in the middle or way past reaching results, milestones or goals.

"You do not rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems"

James Clear, Atomic Habits

In simple terms, when life happens (good or bad) you go back to parts of yourself that are easy to tap into or lean upon to soothe or reward yourself.

Habits stick when they are in line with who you believe you are and what you believe about the world. Habits sticks even better when you take pride in what you believe, so you're more likely to fight for the habit.

It is important to remember that identity is learned and it alters through your life. Your habits are the way you embody your identity and the process of building habits is in part how you become yourself.

So, can you identify your systems that are currently in place? how about your identity? and what about your outcomes? can you differentiate between the three?

According to James Clear, identity is at the core, systems encompass identity and outcomes are the outer layer of the three. When these are in alignment, meaning the outcomes are set according to the identity it is easier to reach the outcomes because you believe you are capable of it.

Follow along as I review more of the Atomic Habits chapters