MM#79--Goals are for losers!

Welcome to the theory to action podcast, where we examine the timeless treasures of wisdom from the great books in less time to help you take action immediately, and ultimately to create and lead a flourishing life. Now, here's your host, David Kaiser.


Hello, I'm David and welcome back to another Mojo minute 2022 style. So in our last Mojo minute, we talked about consistency, beats intensity. And that is, in fact, our theme and 2022 consistency beats intensity, but consistency and what consistency in saying the word consistency repeatedly as many times as I can. Okay, who wrote that line into the script here? Evidently, some people have jokes, don't they? All jokes aside, consistency, in moving in the right direction in your life in a flourishing life. Now, you might think with a new year, we would talk about new goals for the upcoming year. But this year, goals are for losers. What, ha, you can't say that David. X, actually I can. Because goals are what we do. In the beginning of every year, you know, those New Year's resolutions? 

Those are the goals that we spend a ton of time creating. And then we forget about them, after reading them for a week and trying to do them. And then after two weeks, we forget about doing them altogether. Or we resolved they were way too hard to do. You know those goals? If it ain't easy to do, what's the point in creating the goal? Here? Yeah. Doesn't that all sound like a bunch of rubbish? Garbage? I say it's garbage. 

So in today's Mojo minute, let's unpack the phrase goals are for losers. Sure thing, boss. Now, who said goals are for losers? Who is this person? Well, actually, it's the great comic strip writer, Scott Adams, who created the super long running Dilbert cartoon creation. And actually, what he said was, quote, To put it bluntly, goals are for losers, unquote. And it comes to us from a book that I'm halfway through reading, and I'm thoroughly enjoying, because it's actually quite funny to the book is How to Fail at Almost everything and still win big by the aforementioned Mr. Scott Adams. Now for some context, who is this Scott Adams? Well, like I said, He's the creator of the Dilbert Dilbert comic strip, which at the time of the book being published, he had created some 9000 comic strips, dang 9000 comic strips. 

That's some Mojo there. I would say he is crushing it. But why did he say goals are for losers? Well, I will let him explain. And as always, we will go to the book, quote, you could word glue goals and systems together if you choose. All I'm suggesting is that thinking of goals and systems are different concepts, as different concepts has power. goal oriented people exist in a state of continuous pre success, failure at best and permanent failure at worst. If things never work out. I'm raising my hand. things never work out. Systems people, however, succeed every time they apply their systems, in the sense that they did what they intended to do that day. The goals people are fighting the feeling of discouragement at every turn. The systems people are feeling good every time they apply their systems. That's a big difference in terms of maintaining your personal energy in the right direction. The systems versus goals model can be applied to most human endeavors. In the world of dieting, for example, losing 20 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 daily exercise is a system and business making a million dollars as a goal. But being a serial entrepreneur, is this system, unquote. 

Is that not great wisdom, folks.
Gosh, I just love that thinking that paradigm shift. That's, that's just some good stuff right there. And when I read that, I thought of James clear and atomic habits, he is teaching us to create a system and then apply those atomic habits within that system. And then I thought of Coach K. The Duke basketball coach, probably the John Wooden of our generation. He talks to his players about move on to the next play. The goal was not to think about your mistake, but move on to the next play. So you're not making another mistake. That system that he's trying to create there is that culture of the next play? How cool is that? And I just love when these nuggets of wisdom overlap and create a kind of a woven fabric of great ideas that we can apply in our life. So how about you? Are you stuck, year after year after year creating goals and not fulfilling them? Do you write down your goals only to be frustrated after two or three weeks? When you're not accomplishing them? Or you're not on the way to accomplishing them fast enough? Well, will you try the Scott Adams approach? Perhaps? I did. 

And here's my result. After my birthday in May of last year, I wanted to pay it forward by teaching and little short segments. Everything I read on a daily basis. Now that might sound like a goal, it kind of was I guess, semantics, maybe. But then it quickly became a system. Because I knew I had to keep up with my daily reading to have the inspiration to come across great nuggets of wisdom to share. And then I had to jot down those nuggets into a quick 700 word makeshift script that I add live probably too often. And then I need to record from that script, these Mojo minutes and batches of two or four or six at a time to help keep the system going. I didn't write down any goals. I literally just created the system. And then I just kept working the system to make it better and better. And here we are. Well, ah, Episode 79. So systems versus goals, works. Create the system, so you will reach your goal. And here's the hint. When your system is pretty good. And you work on it consistently. And daily. You will surpass your goal. I promise you. I know it. Because guess what it happened to me at a goal of 25 episodes. Let's just get to 25. Let's see if anybody likes them. I blew past 25 Then it was 50. And then after 50 acido. We're just we're foots on the gas. We're gonna keep rolling. Because I was getting good feedback from you guys. So systems versus goals works. 

So in today's Mojo minute, what's your number one goal you want to accomplish this year? Don't write it down. While you can write down if you want. Put it somewhere where you see it daily. Because that is important. There's a there's a lot of scientific evidence behind that. But the most important work. The most fundamental takeaway in this nugget of wisdom from today's Mojo minute is begin to create a system around that. What are the processes in the workflow needed to get you from point A to point B? And if you're stuck, don't worry. And our next Mojo minute we'll walk through how you figure out your processes in your workflow. And until then begin to understand right now. Goals are for losers. I love that phrase goals are for losers and systems beat goals every time let's go Mojo.

Thank you for joining us, we hope you enjoyed this theory to action podcast. Be sure to check out our show page at T Mojo academy.com where we have everything we discussed in this podcast as well as other great resources. Until next time, keep getting your mojo on