Systems Before Goals

Disclaimer!!: I'm not perfect, neither am I there yet. I'm putting this up for accountability, and who knows? Someone's life can make a positive turn from this.

In my previous post, I shared a little bit of what I learned from the book, Atomic Habits, about discipline. Well, discipline is not the foundation of a successful life. It is the next thing to systems. 'Muna, you've been on and about systems recently. Go straight to the point, what do you mean?

Well, setting up systems is simply building habits that align with your goal, but not just. It is building habits set to redefine your identity. It is taking the little steps and making the tiny changes that compound over time. Let me give an example that many of us can relate to. An overweight person wants to get fit. She goes to the gym every day for two weeks. By the third week, she is tired, stops gyming (or maybe reduce the frequency of her visits), and goes back to eating unhealthy. That is very counterproductive because she'll only end up gaining the weight she lost in two weeks by the end of the third day.

No one likes to feel like a failure neither does anyone like feeling incapable of achieving their goals. The whole point of setting systems and building habits is to keep you consistent at what you do, when you hit the goal and even after that because you can hit your goal of losing 200 pounds in three months, then go back to bad eating habits that will make you gain the 200 pounds in three weeks. Setting up systems is about redefining yourself. You don't just want to be the person that lost pounds (but gained it back sooner than later). You want to be the person that eats healthy, never misses the gym, always fit, so you build habits around it. You start small, by eliminating carbs in your diet in exchange for low carbs and proteins, doing at least five minutes of workouts every day.

When building habits, you start with the most baby and feasible steps. You should not be taking leaps because you'll only be calling for outcomes that won't last. Start little; in the words of James Clear, 'Every new habit you're trying to build should not take more than two minutes to accomplish'. Doing it this way makes it easier for you to engage in it because you know you won't take your time in it. You also want to make the new habit enjoyable and satisfying, so you surround yourself with cues that trigger your cravings for the good habit you want to form, and a daily, weekly, or monthly reward for your consistency and ability to show up. The reward should be something you look forward to having, some other positive thing you crave to have or own. Discipline comes after setting up systems. It is the discipline you need to follow up with the systems you set up. It is the discipline you need to be up at 5 am doing workouts. It is the discipline you need to go for unattractive healthy foods over the appealing junk food in restaurants at the corner of every street. It is the discipline I need to show up here every post day to write a blog post and publish. There should be discipline, but where there are no systems, discipline is more irrelevant and necessary.

There are so much wisdom and applicable knowledge in that book. I would suggest you get a copy, in PDF form, or better still, a hard copy version. Let's do this year right. Let's do 2021 better.