Some of you may remember a post I put up a few months ago arguing that one should use systems instead of goals (I’m going to rerun that in a bit below). I was perusing Pocket the other day and came across this article by James Clear discussing the same thing.And now, my post on Systems over Goals:
This post piggy-backs on my last post relating to extreme behavior. To see where I’m going with this one, read that post first.
Setting Goals Sucks
I hate setting goals. In fact I think goals are evil. Ok, that may be overstating it a little, but the sentiment is still there. A goal is finite. It is the sort of thing you can trick yourself into believing that if you only reach that place, that golden spot, your life will be better, have meaning and everything after that will be butterflies and rainbows. So we often engage in extreme and unsustainable behavior in an effort to reach that arbitrary point. And if, god forbid, you don’t achieve your goals, you have, by definition, failed. That is a psychologically scarring event. But we all know that is not how life works.
Was it John Lennon who said “Life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans”? It’s kind of like that with goals. One can be so caught up in doing what ever they need to do to reach that goal, that they miss the life that is happening while they are so completely focused. So if goals are not the answer to the question “How Do I Get Where I’m Going?”, what is?
Using Systems Instead of Goals
Dilbert gives us the answer. Well, not Dilbert really, rather Scott Adams, Dilbert’s creator. Now I realize that Scott Adams may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but in his book How To Fail At Everything And Still Win Big he makes a compelling argument that we should be using systems, not goals, to improve the quality of our lives.
Systems are ways of life. They are not finite, rather as infinite as we are. You can create the system that helps you be the person you want to be, and then just go down that road living that life every day. No fuss, no muss, no failure. The notion has merit. If you are following a dietary system, and you eat that bag of chips, you just put it behind you and step back on the system road. Because you are not chasing a goal, there is no failure component.
Much of what we talk about in the FI community is systems based. While the goal might be FI, the method of getting there, and staying there, is much more systematic than goal focused. Are you going to stop being financially reasonable once you hit your “goal”? Probably not. You may alter your system to be more “spendy” as you move in to the RE portion of FIRE, or have the resources to support a more comfortable life, but then again, you may not. Everyone will be different. Your system of successful living will be different from mine, and that is ok.
Bringing It All Together
What have we learned here?
1. Extreme behavior is not useful because it unsustainable and often leads to boomeranging.
2. Goal setting is sub-optimal because it encourages short-term, extreme behavior in order to hit an arbitrary target.
3. Using systems to create your best life is a more sustainable method of getting wherever it is you are going.
If I had a microphone, I would drop it to the stage and exit, stage right.
Until Next Time, FIRE On! – Oldster
