Focus on systems everyday not goals

I think too many people are focused on goals and not enough on the daily systems that naturally lead to a good result. Let me tell you a quick story that I read from the book that really had a profound impact on me. The book is called the Practicing Mind by Thomas Stirner. And the story goes like this. This is a true story. There was a coach, a archery coach for the U.S. olympic team. And he mentioned that the biggest problem that the American archery team faced was that they were so fixated on their scores, on the results of their shots. It's like they were drawing the bow and releasing the arrow only to hit the bullseye and earn a good score. That was their full focus. And it sounds, doesn't that sound reasonable? Isn't that what we're all trying to do in business? We're trying to get more clients, get more profit, and so we focus on that, get more followers, get more money, so we focus on that. In archery, we're focusing on hitting the bullseye in the center of the target. Isn't that the whole point? Shouldn't that be where our energy and focus goes? Interestingly, he went on to say, this Olympic coach went on to say that he also noticed that the Asian teams were very different. They had grown up with the training to focus on the technique, on the proper execution of the technique that led up to finally releasing the shot. He noticed that it's almost like they didn't care where the arrow landed. They weren't focused on, I better visualize and hit the bullseye. They were saying, let me make sure I'm doing it the best I can. The way I'm pulling the bow and releasing the arrow. I'm just going to do the best I can and then the arrow will hit what the arrow hits. They viewed the result with a detached indifference. The desired goal, and I'm going to read the quote here. For them, the desired goal was a natural result of, of prioritizing the proper technique. They operated in a completely different paradigm and because of it, they were very difficult to beat. The minds of those archers were quiet, uncomplicated, and free from mental turmoil. The ones who were just focused on the technique. The irony was that when compared to the results oriented archers, the technique oriented ones were winning. So now that shaped how the coach helped their team going forward. So it's interesting to me because I made that shift from goal to systems, I think about seven to eight years ago when I had a profound kind of spiritual transformation. And ever since then my business has gotten better and better and better. And my life has become more and more meaningful because I am no longer, my, my subconscious mind is no longer telling me every day, oh, you're not at the goal yet. You know how in entrepreneurship particularly there is often a big fixation on big goals. Get 1 million followers, make 6 figures in your income, 7 figures. And those big dramatic goals feel like they're inspiring and maybe they are inspiring for you, then maybe they get you going to say, yes, I can see myself doing that. Wouldn't that be wonderful? But what happens on a day to day basis, what tends to happen is that your subconscious mind, if you keep focusing and visualizing the six figure income or the million followers, whatever it is, that's quite far from you. The more you focus and visualize on that, the more your mind tells you every day you're not there, you're not yet enough, you haven't yet arrived. And that kind of wearing down, wearing down, wearing down of oh, I'm not yet there, I'm not enough. Having it can help some people to hustle, to work hard. That is a good thing. But for many of us who are more sensitive and more heart based, that kind of wearing down wears us down. We get discouraged more easily perhaps than some other people who do respond well to the daily hustle kind of message. Some of us don't respond as well. And so we get worn down and discouraged by that kind of results oriented beingness. So my suggestion, what I've been doing really for seven plus years is yes, I still have a vision for the future, for my life. I still have milestones leading up to that vision. Oh, I'd like to achieve this, and then that, and then that. It's good to have those milestones and visions. It's fun, it's uplifting to think what the future might hold, but I hold loosely to how it really turns out. And I spend my daily energy focused on the process that I'm doing today. So I use the future vision to say, okay, I'm going north. Okay, I'm going north. Okay, if I'm going north, that means I need to travel in this direction rather than that direction. So the future vision informs my system's design. And then the system is therefore what I focus on today and every single day rather than think. It's like once the vision has been set, I don't have to think so much about it. No, I don't. I rarely think about it. All I think about is what am I doing today, what am I doing right now? If I can do this Today. Well, if I can do this hour. Well, then naturally, of course, it has been designed to lead up to that vision. So I'll give you a couple of simple examples. All right? Instead of saying, I'm going to write a book one day, how about the goal is write a book. It's fine to have fun thinking about that. The system is write one page a day. If you write one page a day, after a year, you have, well, depending on how many days per week that you work. But after a year, you have at least 200 pages that you've written. 200 pages is longer than most of my books and longer than all of my books. Actually, all my books are somewhere around. Anywhere between somewhere around 70 to 100 pages, something like that. But write one page a day, and even if you just work five days a week, you'll have 200 pages at the end of your. At least 200 pages, 250 pages. Taking some vacation. You have 200 pages by the end of the year. And then now you can edit that down. Taking the next three to six months, every day, your system becomes edit three pages, or whatever it may be, right? And then you have a book after a year and a half, or whatever it may be two years. Okay, whatever, Two years. Every two years, publish a book. That's more than most people do. But you see how simple this becomes. Write one page a day. Oh, I could do. I could do one page a day. Writing a book sounds daunting. Writing one page today, which I might not use, and it can be sloppy because I have an editing phase, right? Just one. Write one sloppy page today. If you're intimidated, just write one sloppy page today. Right? So that's an example. Another example. I want to get five more clients. Five more clients. Five more clients. How am I going to get five more clients? That's the goal. Now, every day, you focus on the system. Every day, five days a week. I'm going to contact one person today. One person today. Just today. That's my goal. That's my system. Essentially, what I'm talking about is a process goal. You have a results goal, which you have fun thinking about, that helps you design the process goals that will naturally lead you there. So contact one person today. Right now. If the system feels. Even if the system itself feels daunting to you, right? Then you need to specify smaller, more doable steps for your system. So if contacting one person every day feels daunting, then let's make it more doable. Step number one, schedule a Focus Mate session. For an hour. The Focus Mates sessions are one hour each. So schedule one Focus Mate session. Step number one. Step number two is, during that session, you write down the names of three people that you might want to reach out to. Three, look into your contacts list, look at your Facebook friends list, look at your LinkedIn content. Write down three people. All right, next up, from those three people, which of the three do you most feel energized to contact today? Okay, pick one of the three. Whichever. The three. Okay, pick one person. All right, next step, maybe take five minutes and look at their social media. What have they been up to? And then next step, take the last 15 minutes to write a thoughtful email to them, maybe bringing in something they happened to them on social media that feels relevant. But do you see what I mean? Like doable, step by doable step, you can get. Get anywhere. You can accomplish anything step by step. That's the truth. What would you like to accomplish? Yes, you can get there step by doable step. Now, let me, let me, let me take it one more level, and then we'll finish up this video here. We have now reframed our goal to be something more visionary, something that is inspiring and fun to think about, something that helps us to therefore design a daily system that if we do, the system will naturally lead us to achieving the goal. Just inevitable, right? So the daily system is now what we're focused on. Now I want to. I want to take you to the next step. Take the daily system and let's see a deeper purpose underneath that system. The steps that you're taking, what is a deeper purpose to these steps that you're taking? The simplest way to answer that question is that it will grow you. It will develop your skills and your character. And isn't that what matters the most, ultimately? Because if you continually develop your skills in a calm, joyful way, continually develop your skills and your virtues, your character, your patience, your courage, you practice that every single day, just a little bit. Reach, for example, contacting one person a day, that takes courage. That takes. But you realize, okay, it's not about contact. That's what I'm saying here. It's not about. It's not really about contacting someone every day. It's really about reconnecting with your source where you, where you develop your courage. I believe the source is that we will always be taken care of. Somehow, mysteriously, it is all going to work out beautifully for you. That's what I believe. That's my faith. And perhaps you have a statement of faith that you can revisit as well. What do you deeply believe about life? What is the source where you can tap into on a daily basis for your courage and your compassion and your patience and your joy and your curiosity and your fill in the blank on whatever character traits that you want to develop and your humility. That is really the reason that we do anything at all every day. So that's the step I'm taking. The first step was to vision. Yes, have an inspiring vision. Second step is design the system that leads you there. But third step, which perhaps is the most important for joyful productivity, is to see the deeper purpose behind every step. Today, when I'm contacting the person, it's not about whether they say yes or no, not even about whether they respond or not. What it's really about is for me practicing courage. What it's really about is for me practicing compassion for that person. The joy of connecting with another human being, or at least reaching out to connect. It's up to them. It's up to them whether they write back. I can't control that. What can I control? I can control whether I reach out to that person and whether I do it with compassion, with connectedness, with joy, with patience. That's all I can control. And if I do that, I've just grown. And having just grown, you have just develop, you have just increased the most important asset in your business and in your life, which is your skills and your character. Vision, yes. Start with that. Goals, whatever inspires you, systems that will naturally lead you there. And then most importantly, purpose underneath every step in the system. What is deeper? Purpose. So focus on systems, purposeful steps every day rather than goals, and you will naturally achieve your vision. And you may even find yourself surpassing it one day. I hope this is helpful. I am George Kao, authentic business coach. Love talking about how do we develop a business from a truly deep place that develops the most important aspects of ourselves. And I hope you find this helpful and I will see you in another video. Take care.