This Fact Changed My Life: Systems Achieve Goals

Do you have a goal that you’ve set for yourself? Maybe you want to do your skincare regularly, run a half marathon, or finally be consistent at the gym. Let me ask you this: have you created a system to achieve that goal? If you haven’t, this post is for you. I’ve spent a lot of time studying and working with people who are struggling to achieve their goals — and not setting up systems to achieve goals is one of the main mistakes I see people make.

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What Is a System to Achieve Goals?

I want you to imagine that you are going to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich (that’s your goal). What do you do first? Do you take the bread out first, or do you grab the jelly and peanut butter? When you have all the ingredients in front of you, do you butter the peanut butter side first, or put the jelly on one side? When you put the sandwich together, do you cut it crosswise or down the middle?

You probably have answers to these questions. Heck, you might even have strong opinions about them — because you already have a system for creating the perfect peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

3 Characteristics of Effective Systems to Achieve Goals

1. A System Is a Process to Follow

Now you can start to see why this connects so deeply to goal-setting. If you set a goal — let’s say you want to run a half marathon — but you don’t have a process to follow, a system for getting to that goal, a protocol for what you’re doing on a daily or weekly basis… you’re going to be all talk and no action. You have an idea of where you want to go, but no ability to get there.

To create a system, break your goal down into clear, step-by-step processes you can follow on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. Ask yourself:

1. What do I need to do on a daily basis to accomplish this goal?
2. What do I need to do on a weekly basis to accomplish this goal?
3. What do I need to do on a monthly basis to accomplish this goal?

Once you answer those questions, you’ll have a much clearer idea of what your system for achieving your goal should look like.

2. Systems Are Designed to Solve Problems

Imagine you’re going on a road trip. You get in the car and put the destination into Google Maps. In this metaphor, the destination is your goal. Google Maps looks at traffic in the area and finds you the quickest route from point A to point B. If there’s construction on the highway you normally take, it diverts you around it — it anticipates problems and solves them. Your system to achieve goals works the same way.

The first thing I want you to do is ask yourself: what problems will I encounter on the way to my goal?

Here’s an example. Last year, my goal was to become a tidy person. I noticed that late at night when I wanted to clean up the kitchen, my energy was really low. That was a constant obstacle. So I did something important: I made the obstacle part of the plan.

I decided to empty my dishwasher before I started cooking. That way there was less to do later when I was tired. I took the obstacle of being tired and integrated the solution directly into my system.

Let’s recap. At this point you’ve (1) broken your goal into a clear daily, weekly, and monthly process to create your system, and (2) integrated potential obstacles and their solutions into that system.

3. Systems to Achieve Goals Make Things Easier on Your Brain

The last thing I want you to ask yourself is: how could this be easy?

A great example is Marie Kondo’s KonMari method. She says that to declutter your house, you need to pick up every single object and ask yourself: does this spark joy? If yes, keep it. If no, ditch it. This is the epitome of a simple system to achieve goals — it helps your brain make decisions that might otherwise feel complex and emotionally fraught. When you’re building your own system, use this same tactic: write out simple decision-making questions for yourself.

Client story: I once worked with a client who wanted to build a regular yoga practice, but she dealt with chronic migraines. Together we created a system: when a migraine hit on a yoga day, she would ask herself how bad her pain was on a scale of 1 to 10. A score of 8–10 meant she had permission to skip yoga entirely for the day. Pain in the 5–8 range called for a gentle, reduced practice focused on movement and pain relief. Anything below a 5, and she did her normal routine. Having that system for managing the decision made it so much easier to keep moving forward and achieve her goal.

Ready to Build Systems That Actually Work?

Now that you understand the three key characteristics — a system is a process, it’s designed to solve problems, and it makes things easier on your brain — it’s time to build your own. If you’re working toward a big goal and want science-backed support to break it down step by step, check out the Change Academy.