Supercool People

Clear believes that goal setting may deal more harm than favor. Instead, he offers an original approach for organizing one’s life through creating systems instead of setting goals. A system is a sequence of actions that you repeat in order to move in a chosen direction. According to Clear, if I got his idea correctly, focusing on the process of movement is more productive and effective than focusing on goals, because it is the movement that is crucial for achieving goals.

For example, if your goal is to collect an extra $1,000 by the end of the year, your system might include slightly increasing your monthly income (through regular freelancing, for example). If you want to win a competition, your system is to train regularly and persistently. There seems to be no difference, but in fact it is huge. When you focus on a process instead of a goal, you free yourself from the constant stress and craving for immediate results; an urge to try to control outcomes that does not depend on you; the “yo-yo” effect, when a person feels stressed after reaching a goal, as there is nothing else to strive for.

The changes in my way of thinking started when I correlated this article with the philosophy of “Kaizen,” or the Japanese practice of constant improvement: small daily changes or improvements lead to better results than titanic efforts in an attempt to reach your entire goal all at once. Then I correlated these observations with the way I usually tried to make myself do something. “I need to improve my Japanese speaking skills by the end of the year.” After this I made my way through a couple of weeks of attempts to study and practice regularly, organize my time, and give up some activities in favor of my goal. After this, I usually quit my efforts.

Kaizen, combined with the article by James Clear, gave me another perspective. I discovered that it is much more effective for me to set a general direction, and make small steps that do not require any effort. I have...