How to Build Systems to Actually Achieve Your Goals

If you're relying on motivation, willpower, or self discipline to reach your next level in life, you're already probably in trouble. Success is a marathon. It takes a long time for you to become successful. And if you don't build systems that carry you through the days when you don't feel like showing up or when you fall off, you will mess up. And I'm sure you've done it over and over and over again in your life. What I have found is that the top performers in the world, they're not better than you, they're not smarter than you. They've just become better at removing friction from their lives and automating consistency for what they need to do. And so today, I want to show you how to actually build a system in your life that makes success your default. So that it's not this constant daily battle of, I want to do it, but I'm not doing it. It's just, hey, I. I'm waking up and I'm taking action at the life I want to create. Because think about this for a second. Is your life, when you look around, is it built to support the person that you're trying to become? Is it built to support the life that you're trying to actually grow into? For most people, that answer is no. And it's not because they're lazy or because they're stupid or because they're undisciplined. It's because of the fact that they haven't built systems to support who they're trying to become. So, you know, you need to stop, like, trying harder. And what you need to do is go, okay, I'm not gonna try harder. I'm gonna start building smarter. Like, I'm gonna build systems to help me achieve the success that I want so that you don't rely on motivation or hustle or vision boards or any of that stuff. You just have a system that you built, and you just gotta follow the system. The way I like to think of a system is it's like. It's like the scaffolding that holds up your habits. They are unsexy, but they are a powerful structure that stops you from sabotaging yourself over and over and over again, like we all do. And so what I have found is that the most successful people in the world do this. And what they do is they build a life that supports what they're trying to build, right? And so let's talk about it and dive into it, right? There's a pattern that I see all of the time. With people, especially when it's like New Year's resolutions, and right around January, most people, they'll set a goal, they'll get really excited about the goal, and then they'll. They'll have a few good days, maybe even a good week or two. And then life happens. And I hear it all of the time, over and over and over again. I'm really good at starting. I'm really terrible at following through. Because life happens. You know, you're tired and sometimes you're overwhelmed and sometimes you're just not feeling it. And so you end up missing a day. And because you just missed a day, it makes it easier to miss the next day. And now you're going back into old patterns. And then you can, if you're like most people, you can cue in the guilt and the shame and the telling yourself that you're worthless or that you're never going to change, whatever it might be. Does that sound familiar? Like I always hear. And we will be right back. Hey, I want to interrupt today's episode to tell you about my sponsor. It is me, myself, if you didn't know. I obviously have some coaching programs outside of the podcast to help you learn and grow and become a better version of yourself. Step by step, programs and processes to help you become better in your life and create the life that you want. If you want to learn more about it, you can go to coachwithrob.com once again. Coachwithrob.com check. Check it out. And let's get back to the episode. Like, oh, like, you know, I worked out for 17 days in a row and then I missed one day and then I never went back to working out again. And I was like, well, what happened in that one day? Like, oh, well, I didn't go to the gym and da, da, da. Okay, but what did you, what did you tell yourself about yourself? Well, I told myself I'm a loser. I'm never gonna. I always mess up. This happens to me every time, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, hold on. So you worked out 17 days in a row and then you guilted yourself and shamed yourself for missing one day instead of celebrating the fact that you went 17 days in a row and they're like, oh, yeah, I guess I did do that. And so it tends to be a typical cycle. And so does that sound familiar for you? If it does, I want you to realize that you're not the problem here. In most cases, your system is the problem. It's like you've been trying to reach the top floor of the of success in your life without building a staircase at all. Without a system, your goals are just being run by emotions and old patterns and those are unreliable. So you need to build something stronger. And that's where you really need some structure in your life. So let me show you some examples, right? Because a system is how you achieve a goal. It's not just what the goal is. And so I'll give you a couple of examples of what that might be like. Let's say that you want to work out, okay? Well, maybe your goal is to work out consistently and to lose 10 pounds or to gain 5 pounds of muscle or whatever it might be. Well, you need to build a workout system. If that's the case. What could that look like? Well, maybe what you do is you decide that you're going to schedule workouts three days a week and you're going to put them in your calendar for 60 minutes. And then part of that system is, let's say it's Monday night and Wednesday night and Friday. Monday, Wednesday and Friday is when you work out, right? Well then the night before your system is going to be that you're always going to pack your gym clothes the night before. And then you know that your specific workout plan before you even wake up, the more that morning. So it might be like Monday is push day, Wednesday is pull day, and Friday is legs day. And so you've already got it figured out so you don't have to make decisions. It's just like something that you run with, right? And if, if you're short on time because life happens, well then we're going to have something where if, you know, if hits the fan, we're going to default to this thing. And so maybe if you're short on the, you know, something goes crazy, one of your kids gets sick, things go awry, you're going to default to say a 10 minute YouTube body weight session and you're going to have it already planned and saved so that if it ever does happen, which it will happen, life gets crazy. This is my 10 minute workout to make sure that I get it done. You see what I mean? It's in your calendar. You've got your gym clothes out, you have your specific workout plans figured out. And if hits the fan, I've already got a plan that is what a workout system looks like versus like I'm just going to figure it out today. You know, you need a system, right? So let's say you want to, you want to eat better, maybe Eating healthier is a system that you want to create, right? So if you're creating an eating better system, well then maybe what you want to do is you want to plan all of your meals on Sunday and prep as many as you possibly can. And you're going to go to the grocery store every Sunday at 3pm and that's just in your schedule. And you're going to create three, like go to healthy meals that are just on repeat for busy nights so that you don't have to think. You don't default to fast food or you don't default to chips or anything like that. You've just got your three go tos that you go to on the busy nights. And then maybe you say two nights a week, I'm going to use a meal delivery service like DoorDash once or twice a week so I can just remove decision fatigue. And you know what place you're ordering from, you know exactly what you're going to be ordering. You know that those things are healthy. And now you have created a system for you to be able to eat healthier. Okay, let's say that you want to get better at focusing and like really get better at being productive. Well, then you're going to create a deep work system. And so that would be 90 minute deep work blocks where you've decided your phone is going to be in the other room. You're going to use the Pomodoro technique, which is 25 minutes on, five minutes off with one task only. And you're going to do it three times in a row, which makes 90 minutes. You're going to make sure that you do this, let's say Monday through Friday from 10am to 11:30, right? And you're going to move all of your meetings that you normally have in the morning to your afternoons. And in order to get yourself in the mental prep and to get yourself ready, you're going to have some sort of like focus ritual. You're going to do breathing or you have a specific playlist, or you're going to have your headphones. And so you're developing a system not just like I want 90 minutes of deep work. You see, that's why, I mean it's like the whole system is like the scaffolding that holds it all together so that it makes it easier for you to take action. And then let me give you, let me give you one more because I know people want to get better with money, right? Let's create a finance system. Let's say that your goal is to manage your money and not be overwhelmed by all of it. And so the system is not like, I want to save more money. That's just a goal. The system is I'm going to set a weekly money review where I'm going to check my bank account, I'm going to check my investments. That's going to be the last thing I do on Friday. So It's Friday at 4:30pm I'm going to use auto transfers for my savings. So every week I'm going to have $50 for my paycheck. You know, I get paid every single week. So, you know, as soon as my paycheck hits, I'm going to put $50 into a separate savings account that I will never touch. And then maybe you figure out how you're going to invest it each month and then you're going to track your expenses every Sunday for 15 minutes. And there's many apps now that you can just literally plug up your bank account to an app and it shows you exactly where you're spending money and where you need to cut back. Like, it's so much easier now. You can use this. And so you can use that one app to keep visibility over it. And so you see, it's like the goal is to save and to invest more money, but you're building a system, a framework around it, the scaffolding to help you get it done. The reason why systems work is because, first off, it removes decisions fatigue. Like, if you have to make a decision, a lot of times people are just like, ugh, I'd rather sit on the couch. Do nothing. And so it builds habits into your existing routines. It makes it easier on you so that you don't always have to, like, rely on willpower. And then it turns your goals in from like a wish, oh, I wish I could do this to, like a workflow. Like, you're creating an actual workflow to achieve your goals and it's in your calendar. Like, if it's not scheduled or if it's not tracked or it's not supported in some sort of way, it's not a system. It's really a hope more than anything else. And so that way you don't sabotage yourself. Like, you just take action. Because we all sabotage ourselves. Like, there's a few different ways I see people sabotage themselves. Like, first way is they have, like, have this all or nothing, like, rule that they've created. Like, I have to be perfect. That's stupid. You're not going to be perfect. And so what you're doing in this system is you're creating like you're building a minimum viable product, like a minimum viable version into your system. Like you can't do, like I said a few minutes ago, you can't do a full 60 minute workout. Well, your system includes a 10 minute body weight backup plan. Your system should always have some sort of back backup plan built into it so that you're defaulting to something, not nothing. So that's like the first way people usually self sabotage. Second way is like people are sitting around like waiting to be motivated. I'll do it when I'm feeling inspired or when I feel excited. The fix for that is like you kind of like have a trigger based system that you've built. So you don't wait until you feel like it, you just get it done. Like you don't, you don't wait until you feel like brushing your teeth. You just do it because it's part of your morning flow. And so can you get everything to be like that? Like use consistent triggers. Like right after breakfast, I do this. When I make my morning coffee, I do this. Right after work, I do this. When I get home, I do this. And you're anchoring all of these habits to specific things that are already happening in your life. And then the third thing that I see a lot of times is people are just like, oh, like a huge trap is like I'll just remember it. No, please don't just think you're gonna remember it. Because systems, the reason why they work so well is because they live outside of your brain, you know, so you can use a calendar, a habit tracker, a recurring reminder, accountability buddy visual checklist. Like if it's not visible and you don't see it multiple times a day in your external world, it's very easily forgettable. Okay. And so if you want to achieve and start to build out your own systems, let me give you the three simple S's for building a goal hitting system, right? So that you can actually build on today. Okay. The first thing is make it simple. Make it so easy that tired you or grumpy, you can still follow it, right? Make it. If it's, if it's, you don't have time, make it a five minute version of your, your habit, have some sort of backup that you can always go to, right? Like no setup required. Clear. Next step. Like, okay, I didn't do this. Like I said, you know, 60 Minutes, I don't have it to work out. I've got, I've already got a 10 minute body weight workout saved. I've got 10 minutes right now. Let me take action on it. The key is that you design it for like you don't design it for your best day. Like, oh, if everything was perfect, I'll do this. Like, you just design it for your average day and you keep it as simple as you possibly can. The second thing that will really help you is it needs to be scheduled. Like random goals get random results. So if you put it in your calendar and you pair it with a trigger and you attach to some sort of existing routine, it's more likely to be done. And so an example could be like, I'm going to, if I instead of going, hey, I want to write an entire book, I'll just say, hey, I want to write a hundred words right after I get my morning coffee. I want to meditate every day right after I get my morning water. I want to call 10 leads before I check my email. Right? If it's not in your calendar, it's not planned, it probably doesn't exist. So that's the second thing. And the third s that you want is you want it to be supported. Like you want reinforcement around you. So like, ask yourself, who knows about this goal? Like, what tools can remind me of it? What reward or feedback system do I have or can I build? And it could look like, you know, a Monday check in with a friend who's also trying to work out more. It could be something like using an app like streaks to track yourself. It could be putting post it notes on your mirror so that you see it everywhere. Right? You're more likely to succeed when you build an environment that makes your success easier but also visual as well so that you can't forget about it. Right? And now what happens when you screw up? Because you will screw up. I promise you this. You're not going to be perfect. But the difference is now your system has a reset button in some sort of way. And so like if you miss a workout, cool, no big deal. But your system includes a never miss twice rule. If you skip a writing session because something happens, your system includes a five minute like recovery prompts tomorrow if you, you know, go off track for a week, which sometimes happens to all of us. Your system includes a Sunday night review that's in your schedule. And so what happens with these is you, you build it so that success becomes easier and so that failure is not final. Like messing up is actually part of the system you will mess up. So just plan ahead on what you're going to do next time that you do mess up. And so this is what the point of systems are, is to build a actual framework and scaffolding so that achieving your goals actually becomes easier. And as I said in the very beginning, this is what I have seen from the most successful people in the world, is not that they're smarter, it's not that they work harder, is that they have built systems to actually make achieving their goals easier. And that is what I want you to do. Hey, thanks so much for watching this video based off of what you have been watching on YouTube recently. YouTube is bringing up this video right here, and it thinks that you should watch this one next based off of your algorithm. 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