I think that the general concept of goals should be abandoned. I am working on a detailed post based on this premise, which should be ready to post sooner than later. Before dismissing or down liking my post, I recommend reading it all the way through.

Every other post I see on this subreddit has to do with the significance of setting goals and how important they are. They all sound the same and have had little to no relevance in my personal experience with success in the different aspects of my life. Nor do they have any relevance to any of my family members or friends lives. I know no friends / family who are where they are in life by sitting down, writing where they want to be in x amount of days / years and then subsequently arrived there. At first glance, this seems like a very plausible cause and effect relationship solution to how to become successful and thus may be the reason as to why it resonates so well with many people. (and to be fair, I know I am missing procedures in my poor representation of the goal-oriented approach but wanted to just get a vague generality of it to make a point.)

To cut straight to the chase, it is systems instead of goals that are responsible for success. This is not a premise based on personal testimonial, but one backed by science. Although some successful people have obtained their position by performing the conventional actions of writing goals and then getting out there and getting what is theirs, this is not a common occurrence.

“A system is something you do on a regular basis that increases your odds of happiness in the long run. If you do something every day, it’s a system. If you’re waiting to achieve it someday in the future, it’s a goal.”

“In the world of dieting, losing twenty pounds is a goal, but eating right is a system. In the exercise realm, running a marathon in under four hours is a goal, but exercising daily is a system. In business, making a million dollars is a goal, but being a serial entrepreneur is a system.”

Success will ultimately be met with a few daily / weekly systems that are completed regularly. I plan on completing the post within about a week. In it will include the science and quotes from various different evidence as well as testimonial based books to back my main premise(s).

“The system was to continually look for better options. And it worked for this businessman, as he had job-hopped from company to company, gaining experience along the way, until he became a CEO. Had he approached his career with a specific goal in mind, or perhaps specific job objectives (e.g., his boss’s job), it would have severely limited his options. But for him, the entire world was his next potential job. The new job simply had to be better than the last one and allow him to learn something useful for the next hop.”

This last quote is also a very important system that should be adopted.