WEEK 60: IGNORE GOALS AND FOCUS ON SYSTEMS

WT = Waiting Time. DT = Development Time.

PLANNING (task, scheduling, and WT = DT):  I plan to write my Leap Year W30 post into the site Medium onWednesday at 6 PM in study. I plan to turn those small WTs into Grateful Time, where I look to see what I can be grateful for in those situations. For example, last week I thought how great it was to be married to such an amazing and beautiful wife! I do not tell her enough how awesome she is and how she is the prettiest woman in my life.

EXECUTION (strategies used):  W60 completed. Although I use a combination of many strategies throughout the week, there are always some that are used more than others depending on what comes up. For example, I relied heavily on the Be a Pro, Implementation Intentions, and TRUST strategies this week, as I was not able to complete both tasks until Saturday morning. The highlighted strategies that were used in the week are listed below along with the I CAN'T statements that they help overcome. 

Procrastination....I CAN'T because I am not completely sure or am not qualified to...

TRUST: This is a strategy that took me over a year to finally internalize and came from the learnings from Benjamin Hardy, Dane Maxwell, and Seth Godin.

The path to achieving big things will always be hazy, unclear, and filled with uncertainty. This lack of clarity will bring about feelings of fear, but know this is a natural part of the process. Just have a "bias towards action" and embrace the dance with fear on a daily basis. Lastly, understand your comfort zone is but a small dot within your safety zone, so do something which terrifies you everyday for 20 seconds. This will help you to stretch your comfort zone and take on things you never thought possible. 

Procrastination...I CAN'T because I am not motivated or do not feel like it...

Be a PRO: I actually learned this strategy through insights from Jeff Goins, Tim Ferris, and James Clear. 

First, Jeff Goins mentioned in a podcast that “action will follow mindset.” Second, James Clear wrote that it does not matter what you want to become better at, the only skill that separates a “Pro” from an “amateur” is the ability to show up. Third, Tim Ferris said on his 4-Hr Work Week blog that “Practicing key habits when we don’t want to is the most key habit to all.” This reinforces this idea of being a “Pro” by having the mindset to show up consistently and completing the work.

The difficult thing about being a pro requires us to consistently follow through. Yet, we often let the challenges of everyday life get in the way and only attempt to do the work when we feel motivated. This produces small gains if any and leads us down a path of frustration. There will be days when you do not want to complete a key habit or activity, but develop the mindset of a “Pro” by showing up, sticking to your schedule, and then completing the tasks that move your forward.

Early Scheduling = Implementation Intentions: This is a strategy that I credit to completing my tasks consistently on a weekly basis. In this strategy, you first PLAN to complete a task at a SCHEDULED time (day and time) in a specific location as early in the week as you can. More specifically you fill in the following statement.

I plan to [task] on [day] at [time] in [location].

Three benefits are produced from doing this. First, you get a sense of accomplishment if you complete the task in the beginning of the week at the scheduled time. In addition, it allows you to devout more time to do additional tasks to reach your goals within the same week. Second, it provides more time to complete the task if life presents you with something that needs to be attended to during the original scheduled time. Lastly, research shows that you are 2X to 3X more likely to follow through on your actions. I learned about this strategy from James Clear, who is a great blogger that writes on the science of human behavior and how to build better habits. He shows the research on how Implementation Intentions help you follow through on your plans and achieve your goals.

REFLECTIONS (learnings and actions): The Leap Year process has allowed me to learn so much in 60 weeks. From strategies to overcome all forms of procrastination, to tools to help overcome the daily "I CAN'T" statements we tell ourselves, it is all pretty incredible.  

During this process, I have learned there is a difference between something which is useful and something which will be transformative. For example, when I learned the idea about the "Aggregation of Marginal Gains" or the accumulation of small improvements, it totally changed how I approached the Leap Year process. Instead of looking for drastic changes, I looked for small, consistent 1% improvements to help me reach my goals.

Well this week, I feel I came upon another transformative learning. It actually connects a lot of what I have been doing already, but I was able to crystallize th learning when I read an article from guess who, James Clear.

James, is an expert on habit formation and has a following of over 500,000 readers. He wrote a great article outlining the difference between systems and goals, and why you should focus more on systems to make progress.

Usually we all make goals, then determine the system which will help us achieve our goals. Thus, the goals, or end result is our main focus, and the systems, or the process which gets us there, is our secondary focus. 

For example, if you are an entrepreneur:

Goal: create a million dollar business.

System: sales, marketing, and communication skills. 

Then James asked a very interesting question.

“If you completely ignored your goals and focused only on your systems, would you still get results?”

Answer, YES! James also writes full time and publishes two articles a week, and wrote over 115,000 words last year just by doing this. He wrote enough words to fill nearly two full length books (a book averages about 50,000 - 60,0000 words) just by focusing on his system of writing. Furthermore, James did this in 11 months, not even a full year. 

Now think about this, if he had started with the goal of writing two books in a year, would he have achieved that same result? I would safely bet no, as just the thought of writing one book in a year is already overwhelming. 

WHY is this? Well, here is a list of reasons James outlines, which highlight why it is so important to focus on systems, rather than your goals to make progress.

1. Goals reduce your current happiness. James writes 

“You are essentially telling yourself I am not good enough yet, but I will be happy when I reach my goal.”

This teachers you to push happiness away until you reach the next milestone, then the next, and so on. The solution, commit to a process, not the goal.

2. Goals foster Yo Yo like behavior.

Think about setting a goal to lose weight. Often times you will do all the hard work and then once you reach your goal, you stop being committed to your system which helped you get there, i.e. eating healthy and exercising. 

This effect of working towards a goal, and then stopping creates a yo yo effect, and makes it extremely difficult for you to build on progress for the long term. Solution, release the need for immediate results, and focus on staying committed to a system which help you move closer to where you want to be.

3. Goals do not account for the future.

We have no idea what the future will provide, but creating goals creates an illusion we can predict exactly what and when something will happen. Unfortunately, we have no idea of the situations or circumstances which will present themselves along the way. 

Solution, create a feedback look to monitor your system. Tracking your progress consistently will inform you if you need to modify your system. For example, if you are trying to lose weight and gain 3 lbs in a week, you need to identify an adjustment which will get you back on course.

James writes goals are not all bad, they are good for PLANNING your progress, but systems are good for MAKING progress. The key is to be committed to the process. That is it! 

What went well?

Another week where I was not able to complete the weekly task until Saturday, but felt minimal stress as I incorporated my strategies to help me complete the weekly task. 

What is something we can improve upon? What actions can we take next week?

Eating better food. I found I felt tired and lethargic during the week, even after I had a good 7.5 to 8 hours a sleep a night. As I reflected, I remember eating some extra carbs, with cheese, and with... 

I guess the saying "Garbage in, equals garbage out" is quite true. 

What is something to avoid next week?

Eat the best fuels for the body. 

Thanks for tuning in and see you in W61.