Systems and Goals

Too often, I feel, we as a society, are confusing the difference between systems and goals.

I'd like to use an illustration that helps me to understand the difference between the two. Before I do, I would like to first identify a few things that may "drive home" the importance of getting this right. Take a moment to reflect on some of the most important things that you want for your life. Think about some of your passions, dreams, and aspirations. Think about the goals you have set to achieve them. Think about the process that you have followed to set these goals. Did you use the SMART goals model? Did you simply daydream about them?

Now, did you ever achieve those goals? What happened after you achieved them? Did you stop doing the things that helped you to achieve your goal? Or did you give up on your goal before you ever got the chance to see it come to fruition?

Most of us don't have to think too hard to remember a time when we set a lofty goal at the gym (or a goal to simply walk through the doors of a gym), or to spend more time with family, eat better food, make more money, pay off bills, spend less money, and the list goes on and on and on. We often get caught up in this cycle of "wanting". This generates our thought patterns that formulate goals. Once the goal is established, we hyperfocus on its achievement, leaving little room for thinking about how this goal should be accomplished, or the "roots" of why we wanted to achieve this goal in the first place, or where we will be once we achieve this goal (what now?).

The illustration that I found to be very useful to me as I have embarked on my own personal journey of understanding goals and striving for success is as follows. Disclaimer: I know that this illustration will not directly resonate with many readers, however you can simply attempt to apply this principle to something personal to you, that you know very well. Okay, imagine for a moment, you are out on the firing range. You have just gone through the basics of firearm safety along with understanding general competencies and functions of your particular firearm. Now that you know how to operate the firearm safely, you are ready to start trying out your new skills by getting some lead down range. You start by picking a target AKA a GOAL. Your GOAL is to hit the center of your target at one hundred and fifty meters. Now that you have your goal, you can start striving for success! (Now here is what society seems to struggle with when thinking about goals). As you sit there, you load your firearm and proceed to shoot at your target, you may get close to your goal every now and then, but unless you can do it with some degree of consistency, you are just getting lucky, you are not actually reaching a goal, you are leaving your success up to chance. You will come to find, that hitting the center of your target/reaching your goal, has nothing to do with your ability to "set a goal" nor does it have anything to do with throwing bullets down range hoping that one of them will strike the mark.

Now, as we continue with this illustration, this is where things begin to become exciting! If you can understand this principle, you can have access to an incredible power that will lead you down a path of sustained success and a good relationship with goals and systems. Here is where we talk about the "System". On a different day you arrived at the firing range with your new firearm, you brought with you an experienced shooter/mentor. They taught you how to be safe, they taught you how the firearm functions, they helped you set a realistic goal. Before you started shooting, they explained that reaching this goal does not make you a good shot. Infact this goal is merely a simple tool; it has little significance in terms of your success. It simply reflects your ability to get better at completing the system, the fundamentals, the basics. Then your friend showed you the structure of the system. They coached you on how to aim properly at your target, gaining proper sight picture and proper sight alignment. They coached you through your breathing patterns and your trigger squeeze. They coached you through a proper shooting stance, grip of the firearm, and recoil control. They helped you to learn the science behind the path of the bullet and external forces that can predictably affect its trajectory. They coached you through proper maintenance and cleaning procedures of your firearm to ensure maximum function ability. Then they coached you as you spent many hours perfecting this routine. As you became better at the "SYSTEM" you created good habits that complimented your capability. This increased your ability to set further and further targets/goals. Your hyper focus on getting better at the system began to allow your achievement of hitting more difficult and complex targets/goals to reflect where the true success is.

The success is not found in the hitting of the target; it is found in your improved ability to get better at all the components of the system. That is what makes you a good shot. Simply showing up to the range is not enough. Simply practicing by shooting at targets is not enough. It takes intentionally learning, intentionally improving on all the components within the system. Sometimes this can be tedious, boring, and painful. All too often we fall in love with the "idea" of being able to reach a goal. We think to ourselves, my life would be so much better if I were fifty pounds less, one million dollars richer, driving a new car, living in a mansion, traveling the world. We will find that our ability to set a goal has nothing to do with our ability to achieve significance or success.

Here at Intentional Life Coaching LLC, we are passionate about being the coach/mentor that will take the time that it takes to help you discover, learn, improve, and refine the systems that will lead you to where your heart is. We will help you to use goals the right way, which is to measure how capable you are with the "system". We will do all we can to help you find sustainable growth and lasting significance in your life.

For additional material related to this content check out the books

"Atomic Habits" by James Clear, "The Compound Effect" by Darren Hardy, "The 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management: Proven Strategies for Increased Productivity and Inner Peace" by Hyrum Smith. There are many more great resources that can help us to learn this principle. Let me know in the comments if you have any great resources too.

Thank you for reading! We can't wait to connect with you or hear what you have to say!

-Justin