What If You Focused On Your Systems Instead of Just Your Goals?
Setting goals for a new year can feel overwhelming. We all know that resolutions typically don’t last, but we also feel the energy that comes with a new year of possibilities. Here’s a clearer path for setting and reaching your goals.
Some people love complex processes. Intricacies of a large spreadsheet really get the brain going and people can spend lots of time deeply analyzing financial questions.
But when we try to apply the same level of study to setting goals, it never works out. We try spreadsheets and software and Gantt charts to lay out goals in detailed sequences and it just doesn’t click. We never understand why.
What is Your System?
Maybe it’s time to try something different, like what is passed along in personal coach James Clear’s excellent writings on setting aside goals to focus on systems in which he discusses the difference between goals and systems.
“If you’re a coach, your goal is to win a championship,” Clear writes. “Your system is what your team does at practice each day. If you’re a writer, your goal is to write a book and your system is the writing schedule you follow each week. If you’re an entrepreneur, your goal is to build a million-dollar business and your system is your sales and marketing.
“Now for the really interesting question,” he adds. “If you completely ignored your goals and focused only on your system, would you still get results?”
Yes, says Clear, who can help spark new thinking in us regarding this year’s goal setting. Let’s create our own goal-setting template with just three short sets of questions. On a sheet of paper create 3 columns.
1. Review 2022’s Successes
In the first column write down what you accomplished in 2022? Personally? Professionally? What were the year’s successes?
Large and small, all your successes build toward your long-term vision. Put your achievements on paper and remind yourself what you did accomplish last year. We all dwell on what we didn’t accomplish more than on what we did, so take a few minutes to counter that natural tendency and prime your goal-setting mechanisms.
2. Plan 2023’s Successes
In the third column write down what you want to accomplish in 2023? Personally? Professionally?
Give your mind some space and think about what you want to have accomplished by the time you sit down at your desk in the first week of 2024, and look back at another successful year. Write down these 2023 goals and think about how you’ll feel when those turn into accomplishments on 2023’s success list.
3. What Do You Need to Succeed?
In the middle column, connect your positive past to your envisioned future. What do you need to do to accomplish your 2023 goals? What new skills do you need to learn? What new habits do you need to create? What must you do to make these goals a reality?
Are there new connections that you need to make? What activities should you try? Focus on systems and habits - repetition is the key.
Most of us love setting goals and thinking about the future. But our biggest area of improvement could be building systems that support those goals and the positive changes we want to make. Focus on building positive habits toward the goals that you seek for yourself, your family, and your business.
As your financial advisor, I look forward to celebrating your 2023 successes and supporting you to achieve your best Return On Life (ROL).
