It would be reassuring if the reason people don’t reach their goals was simply a case of talent or circumstances. The reality is something very different.
In today’s episode I share one simple idea that could transform your experience of goals how quickly you reach them.
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Transcript
Well, Hey everybody, Jonathan Doyle with you.
Speaker:Once again, welcome aboard friends to the daily podcast.
Speaker:It is good to be with you.
Speaker:I hope you got a chance to listen to yesterday's episode where I went.
Speaker:Deep on the topic of commitment of showing up when you just don't
Speaker:feel like it of honoring the gift that you have been given.
Speaker:So I hope you got a chance to listen to that, to yesterday's
Speaker:episode, which I think.
Speaker:If you're looking on, the platform would have been Sunday, July
Speaker:24, 20, maybe Monday the 25th, depending on when it landed.
Speaker:So I hope you got a chance to listen to that.
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Speaker:If you could leave a comment and go and check out the show notes, you can get
Speaker:free access to my book, bridging the gap.
Speaker:You can find out how to book me to speak.
Speaker:I am back on the speaking circuit as things have begun to open up.
Speaker:So I would love to come to your organization business school.
Speaker:Uh, government organization, church, whatever it is, and shape some content,
Speaker:particularly to help and inspire and
Speaker:encourage and help people grow.
Speaker:That's the goal to help people grow, to help everybody in your organization.
Speaker:And you realize this remarkable potential you have been given to
Speaker:go and check out those show notes.
Speaker:Friends today.
Speaker:We're going to talk a little bit about systems.
Speaker:I know some of you are listening.
Speaker:Um, regular listeners thinking, when are we back on Marcus Aurelius?
Speaker:I'll probably pick that up again tomorrow.
Speaker:Um, we're going to take that journey over us.
Speaker:Extended period of time.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:Um, Marcus Aurelius will rejoin us tomorrow all the
Speaker:way from first century Rome.
Speaker:He's just great how he just makes time for us.
Speaker:So we're going to check in there tomorrow.
Speaker:Today, we're going to talk about a quote from James clear, who's an author.
Speaker:And I came across a quote of his a few days ago, which I thought was excellent.
Speaker:I'm going to unpack that a little bit together.
Speaker:He says this.
Speaker:He says, you do not rise.
Speaker:To the level of your goals.
Speaker:You fall to the level of your systems.
Speaker:Or more time you do not rise to the level of your goals.
Speaker:You fall to the level of your systems.
Speaker:Now, if you read his work, you will know that he is deeply focused on the way
Speaker:that habits shape our outcomes and what incredibly habitual creatures we are.
Speaker:If you're not across the basic sort of neuroscience of habits.
Speaker:Um, You know, Imagine if we had to relearn most things every single day.
Speaker:Imagine if we sort of went through life, having to relearn every day.
Speaker:How to brush our teeth, how to cook a particular meal, how to make a
Speaker:cup of coffee, how to drive to work.
Speaker:If every single day we know kind of like Dory and finding Nemo, or
Speaker:we just keep forgetting everything and having to do it again.
Speaker:And again.
Speaker:So to, you know, I guess to take the pressure off the neural load that we bear.
Speaker:As a species we've got really good at habits.
Speaker:We've got really good at habitual things that we do day in, day out that reduce
Speaker:the neural load that stop the brain drain.
Speaker:And hopefully make our lives more efficient and effective.
Speaker:And of course, There's a whole perimeter here of, uh, different habits, right?
Speaker:The different ways that we can use habits positively and negatively.
Speaker:You know, people can use a substance to change their feeling state.
Speaker:And it's highly effective.
Speaker:So you can take drugs for example, and immediately change your feeling state.
Speaker:But there's of course other what the economists would
Speaker:call opportunity costs, right?
Speaker:Trade-offs in health and relationships and all sorts of other stuff.
Speaker:So humans are always looking for these ways.
Speaker:To simplify life, to make life more efficient and effective.
Speaker:So what, uh, James clear is telling us here is that.
Speaker:You know, none of us really have too much trouble articulating goals.
Speaker:Most people could say, oh yeah, I'd like this.
Speaker:Or I want to be this fit or lose this weight.
Speaker:Or I live here, I own this or drive that.
Speaker:Most of us do not have too much trouble figuring out the things
Speaker:that we actually want in life.
Speaker:So why don't we get them?
Speaker:I've been talking about this a lot in recent episodes.
Speaker:What stops us?
Speaker:You know, I've spoken recently about Stephen Covey's sort of
Speaker:point is that if you want different goals, you want different outcomes.
Speaker:You have to do different things.
Speaker:So there's a bunch of reasons why people don't get to their goals.
Speaker:But I think today, this is another insight is James clear says you
Speaker:fall to the level of your systems.
Speaker:So he's immediately highlighting the systemic.
Speaker:The systematic nature of human personal effectiveness is the goal of life to be.
Speaker:Um, optimized is the goal of life to be hyper-efficient no, the
Speaker:goal of life is to love people.
Speaker:And to fully actualize your potential in the service of
Speaker:something bigger than yourself.
Speaker:That's the purpose of life?
Speaker:I think.
Speaker:But.
Speaker:Part of the, you know, the freedom that we have.
Speaker:Is to choose how we want to develop and what we want to develop in our lives.
Speaker:And one of the ways we do that is the systems that we build around it.
Speaker:You know, you look at.
Speaker:Elite military units, right?
Speaker:Everything is systematized.
Speaker:Everything because they're high pressure situations.
Speaker:With a huge number of variables.
Speaker:So the, the training is built on this endless redundancy of systems.
Speaker:This happens, then do this, this happens, then do that.
Speaker:This thing goes over here.
Speaker:Then that thing goes over there.
Speaker:So I've never been in the military, but.
Speaker:You know, you understand that from the moment you're inducted, your
Speaker:life becomes radically systematized.
Speaker:You don't join the.
Speaker:You know, the U S Navy seals.
Speaker:And then I'd say, Hey guys, listen, I'm the head to bed when you feel like
Speaker:it, and look just wake up tomorrow or whatever time suits and then a.
Speaker:You know, we'll meet together, we'll have a vote and see, uh, we want to do
Speaker:some exercise and on, and then we'll just, you know, have a bit of a chat and
Speaker:see what we've got planned for the day.
Speaker:That's not how it works.
Speaker:Is it right?
Speaker:It's like every single second of the day.
Speaker:It's highly systematized.
Speaker:And that systematic nature of the day leads to extraordinary accomplishment of
Speaker:goals and outcomes and mission parameters.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So we look at these different effective systems such as elite military units,
Speaker:and we discover that the systems.
Speaker:Create high-level outcomes.
Speaker:You know, imagine being like a neurosurgeon, right?
Speaker:Like there's a bunch of systems that you follow.
Speaker:There's a bunch of protocols about what happens next and then this, and then this.
Speaker:Think about pilots, right?
Speaker:I mean, Paula, stand, sit there and go, Hey, let's just get it off
Speaker:the ground and see what happens.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:You know, let's just fingers crossed.
Speaker:Is it windy?
Speaker:I don't know who cares.
Speaker:Let's just hit those engines and see what happens next.
Speaker:Of course, it's massively systematized and it's funny to note.
Speaker:That even in this really advanced, you know, technological culture we live in
Speaker:that pilots are still highly systematized.
Speaker:Checklist checklist checklist checklist.
Speaker:So what's the goal?
Speaker:Well, to get the plane off the ground.
Speaker:And to not kill a whole bunch of people and land them safely on the ground.
Speaker:Another destination.
Speaker:So the goal is clear.
Speaker:But the systems are utterly central.
Speaker:So let's just take this into our own lovers.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:So what James clear is telling us is that if we want to have a higher
Speaker:level of goal attainment in our lives, What we are going to need.
Speaker:Is to have quality systems in our lives, quality systems around nutrition,
Speaker:quality systems, around exercise quality systems around how we use our free time.
Speaker:Uh, quality systems about how we avoid distractions, quality systems.
Speaker:About, you know, the, the, how we allocate our time, how we effectively
Speaker:and efficiently use our time.
Speaker:I spoke recently about a.
Speaker:A video is Lex Frieden.
Speaker:Who's a Silicon valley guy and he he's a single guy, but he did a video
Speaker:on how he uses his time in a day.
Speaker:And he's a very influential dude.
Speaker:And it's fascinating to watch.
Speaker:He sort of builds his day around three, four hour blocks of uninterrupted,
Speaker:deep verticals, deep work.
Speaker:You know, like this idea that he wants to be highly, you know,
Speaker:uninterrupted, he wants to focus intently on a particular thing.
Speaker:And so his systems, his whole day is just highly systematized.
Speaker:He allows himself sort of free reign later in the evenings.
Speaker:And often some time on the weekends, but his goal outcomes, his attainments
Speaker:in life are a mix of, you know, genetics and intellect and all
Speaker:the stuff that he brings, but he's really systematized his life.
Speaker:You know, and I'm, you know, I would have to say.
Speaker:I mean, it's harder for me with three young kids and, um, you know, we're,
Speaker:we're home educating one of our kids.
Speaker:So that takes up a fair bit of time.
Speaker:There's a little, there can be sort of.
Speaker:You know, sometimes for us, there's different challenges with how
Speaker:time's allocated during the day.
Speaker:But definitely for me between about 4:00 AM and 8:00 AM, basically every single
Speaker:day, my time is highly systematized.
Speaker:You know, I've got a beautiful coffee machine in my downstairs office.
Speaker:It's set on a remote timer.
Speaker:It turns on about 3:30 AM I come down at four.
Speaker:I have coffee exactly the same way at exactly the same time.
Speaker:I don't touch any email or anything.
Speaker:I have an hour for sort of prayer or meditation.
Speaker:And then I'm usually training some other on the trainer bike or I'm out on
Speaker:the road or I'm running or I'm rocking or doing whatever it is I'm doing.
Speaker:Uh, and then I'll do some recording.
Speaker:I'll often try and get, uh, the days podcasts and videos done,
Speaker:you know, before eight o'clock.
Speaker:And then, you know, I'll take one of the kids to school and I'm back.
Speaker:And then it's just bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.
Speaker:It's very systematized.
Speaker:And it helps me, like, I've always just been somebody who has really responded.
Speaker:To predictability in the environment.
Speaker:So I just want to say to you in this episode that if you want some more
Speaker:efficiency and effectiveness in your life, if you want some more goal attainment
Speaker:in your life, look at the systems.
Speaker:Do you let the day happen to you or do you take control of the day?
Speaker:Yes, that can be spontaneity.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:We can make time for people that need us.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:But is the broad description of your life, a life that has a level of systems.
Speaker:And repetitive behaviors that move you towards success.
Speaker:What is success?
Speaker:Success is unleashing and using the extraordinary potential God has
Speaker:created you with that's the game.
Speaker:That's the game we're playing here.
Speaker:The game we're playing is not the game of accumulation or financial reward.
Speaker:The game we're playing is not the game of power and cultural recognition.
Speaker:The game that we are playing.
Speaker:Is the game of gratitude for the talents and abilities that we have and the
Speaker:game of finding ways to develop them fully so that we can serve other people
Speaker:and make the world of fractionally better place than we found it.
Speaker:So let system serve you.
Speaker:My friend, let systems serve you.
Speaker:If you think about what I'm saying, you will get it.
Speaker:It's like, don't let the day just happen.
Speaker:Don't just look if you're on holiday, if you're in Hawaii, whatever me,
Speaker:but even then, you know, when we will ask, we've been Hawaii heaps and.
Speaker:You know, even then we're still thinking about, okay, what do we want to go?
Speaker:What do you want to see?
Speaker:What do we want to experience?
Speaker:We would have a rest day.
Speaker:We'll have this day.
Speaker:Trust me.
Speaker:I'm not like I don't run around with my family with a clipboard.
Speaker:I don't.
Speaker:I really do not do that.
Speaker:Um, though this morning when we were heading off to church, getting
Speaker:them all in the car on time is.
Speaker:They could have done with a clipboard.
Speaker:I tell you the truth that would have worked beautifully.
Speaker:But in general, um, you know, I hold myself to a pretty high standard.
Speaker:I try and model this to the kids.
Speaker:Uh, just in terms of, you know, they see that I do certain things
Speaker:in a certain way, and I do them regularly to them every single day.
Speaker:I think it's good for them to see that, to model it, but I don't inflict this
Speaker:on others and not inflicting it on you.
Speaker:I'm offering it to you.
Speaker:So one more time, James clear says you do not rise to the level of your goals.
Speaker:You fall to the level of your systems.
Speaker:So you can write down the most magnificent goal on the planet.
Speaker:It can be beautiful, spectacular, remarkable.
Speaker:But if your systems will not support it, you're not going there.
Speaker:And it's going to be eventually deflating and annoying and frustrating.
Speaker:So God bless everybody.
Speaker:That's all I want to say.
Speaker:Think about your systems.
Speaker:Think about your systems.
Speaker:Think about the structures and protocols and repeated behaviors that lie underneath
Speaker:the things you say are important.
Speaker:In your life.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:We're done.
Speaker:Would you subscribe for me if you haven't done it already?
Speaker:Excuse me.
Speaker:Hit that subscribe button and go check out all those show notes.
Speaker:Book me to speak live.
Speaker:Um, and also if you want to just reach out and frame a question for me, I love it.
Speaker:When people do that, you can email me direct jonathan@jonathandoyle.co.
Speaker:But, um, love to come and speak at your organization business
Speaker:school, church, government group, whatever it is, reach out friends.
Speaker:I book up very quickly, but, uh, there's always a couple of spaces here and there.
Speaker:If you would love to talk about that.
Speaker:So God bless you guys.
Speaker:My name's Jonathan Doyle.
Speaker:This has been the daily podcast and I'll have another message for you tomorrow.
