Systems vs. Goals: How a Cartoonist Changed How I Do Everything

I try not to have more than one big desire in my life at any given time, and I also recognize it as the axis of my suffering. I realize the area where I’ve chosen to be unhappy. — Naval Ravikant

Simply by definition, having goals that you’re trying to achieve in the future means that there is something missing in your life right now. Goals represent unhappiness — lack — that you have chosen and taken upon yourself.

Someone who’s less practiced in the art of nuanced thought and careful deliberation might see this and tell you to drop all your goals and live only for the moment — to take what you can get in life and forget about ever trying to achieve anything beyond yourself.

But that’s not what I’m about. I set, and recently achieved, a goal of reading 1,000 books, and one of my goals that gets me laughed at the most is my goal of owning a space travel company. Call it my “chosen unhappiness.”

So I’m not against setting goals — and goals themselves are not the problem — but it’s my contention that many people are approaching them in a way that’s sub-optimal, to say the least.

Many of y’all have these 50lbs weight loss goals and million-dollar investment account aspirations that are looming over you, their large scope intimidating you and their sheer difficulty mocking your sincere efforts.

I would never mock you for having big goals, and under no circumstances will I take the side of those who will count you out. I’m on your side!

In keeping with my avowed position of being completely and totally on your side, I want to share a powerful framework for thinking about goals and their achievement that I picked up from someone who used to draw funny pictures for a living.

Dilbert’s Sage Advice

The comic strip, Dilbert, was first published in 1989 and as of 2013, it was published in over 2,000 newspapers, in 65 countries and 25 languages. It’s, um…popular, I guess.

Since then, it’s spawned dozens of books, a video game, and just on and on. Anyway, one of those books that Scott Adams would later go on to write is called How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big. I rank it among one of my favorite business books. Here, also, is where he taught me about the advantage of having systems, rather than goals.

You see, goals are always up ahead in the distance; they’re in the future, unfinished, incomplete, always “later.”

Systems, however, are right now. Today.

Having a goal to lose 50lbs is worthy of your time, attention, and focus, and if it’s one you’ve set for yourself, then I wish you all the success that’s coming to you if you stick with it. But, it’s in the “sticking with it” where your focus has to be placed if you want to increase your odds of success.

The goal is to lose some large number of pounds, maybe, but the system is making sure you move every day; you’re cutting down on sugar and toxic foods and drinks; you’re eating fewer calories than you take in; you’re getting adequate sleep each night; you’re surrounding yourself with people who want the best for you and who are supporting you as you move closer to that ideal weight.

That’s your system, and that’s the field on which your goals have to be fought for.

You can apply this to tons of different areas of your life, of course — selling a certain number of cars or houses is a goal, but your system would include learning as much as you can about communication and persuasion, making sales calls, and improving your core offer.

If you work on these system elements, then your goal is going to move closer and closer to reality. I’d love to have 100,000 subscribers on YouTube, but that’s “just” a goal. My system, however, includes uploading new videos every week, constantly upgrading my camera gear, editing skills, and storytelling powers, and just being a better filmmaker than I was when I went to sleep.

That’s how you use systems; that’s how you win.

Do Not Hurry, Do Not Stop

A major part of success is just showing up. It’s showing up again, and again, and again, for however long it takes, regardless of whether or not you feel like doing it. “Motivation” comes and goes, but your system will always be there for you.

So how can you implement a system of your own?

Well that’s going to be different depending on what you wish to achieve, of course, but in general it’s about breaking down all the elements of your goal and stacking the odds in your favor.

See, life is all about probabilities. Luck doesn’t exist, but probability absolutely does. So you have to combine the elements of your system with the actions that are going to improve your chances of success. What does that look like?

If you want to become a better writer, say, and your “goal” is to earn a full-time living on something like Medium, it’s ultimately not helpful to declare some goal of XYZ dollars per month and then hope to someday reach it. That’s a goal. But your system would involve reading more books (the best writers are also the most prolific readers), brushing up on the basic rules of grammar and improving your vocabulary, making sure you live an interesting life so that you always have lots of writing material, scoping out the Medium publications you want to write for, etc.

Writing’s a complicated example because there’s so much that goes into it. It’s an infinite game. But you have all these moving parts, and if you’re weaker in one of these areas it’s going to hold you back. However, now you have an advantage because your system is in place, making sure you’re making progress in all of these areas every single day of your life.

Just keep showing up. You will win, but you have to keep showing up and laying down that very next sentence. And then the next one. Over and over again until you’ve won.

The more times you practice a skill, the more you bring the probability gods over to your side and convince them to work for you. This works for literally every skill and literally every goal. Keep putting in the hours — the disciplined, focused effort — and you’re going to outgrow your once-overwhelming goals faster than you can say Dilbert.

You’re Already Successful

Having goals mean that you’re failing — because you haven’t achieved them yet! You’re constantly on the losing side of your goals, because they’re always in the future. That’s the nature of goals, always to be in the future. However, when you work your system, you’re already a success no matter what.

When you’re working wholeheartedly toward some big dream, that is success. When you’re blissfully hammering away at your system on your way to your goals, you’ve already made it. You’re exactly where you need to be, doing what needs to be done, and that makes you some kind of hero; at least it does to me.

Genuine heroism is so rare today — people cast ironic glances at people who are earnestly doing their best and striving to become better, but that’s just because they themselves don’t have a system worth living for and fighting for.

But hey, forget about them. Block them out and just capture it. Advance confidently in the direction of your next effective action, and your system will lead you to the achievement of goals undreamt of in common hours.

I wish you more than luck.

All the best,

Matt Karamazov

P.S. Do you read a lot? Would you like to?

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Previously Published on medium

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Photo credit: iStock