Highly successful people don’t set goals…they do this instead
We all know those people who wait for a special day of Earth’s revolution around the Sun to start changing their lives.
Heck, it’s easier to know people like this than not to know them. They are everywhere around us. And they are inside of us.
Who here hasn’t done a “Become a better person in the next year” resolution. And in there, we put some vague statements like:
Become a better person
Lose weight
Make more money
Read more books
In fact, these 4 statements above are what composes over 90% of New Year’s resolutions.
But you don’t belong to this 90% group. You are here, on Medium, trying to figure out what the hell do you need to do to change your life.
I’ve had the same question for years. And I’ve listened to gurus after gurus after gurus telling me the exact same shit that doesn’t work no matter how much I tried.
So then, I went deep. Deep into the understanding of what makes the person really successful. Not “Let me show you how successful I am” but really successful.
You know, the person who has it all.
Someone who doesn’t sacrifice family for business, social life for money, or time for legacy.
And after I’ve removed the vanilla shit messages you hear every single day, I’ve managed to find it.
And it is quite simple. Not easy, but simple.
Successful people have a process-oriented mindset instead of a goal oriented-mindset.
And that’s it. Again simple, but as sure as hell not easy.
And when I started to look at the world from a process-oriented perspective, all things finally started to set in like a perfect Tetris game.
But to explain to you why you don’t need goals, let’s first explain in plain English what process-oriented and goal-oriented mindset are:
Goal-oriented mindset
Okay, so what is a goal-oriented mindset. It is a way of thinking that states that the desired outcome of a certain action will provide the needed change.
In plain English, that means that the moment you achieve your goal, a change that you desperately wanted will occur.
The problem here lies in the fact that this is a short-term strategy and that this is ineffective in the long term. Thus, it is not a real change. It is just lying to yourself for a short period of time.
And here is an example that happens to millions of people out there.
Yo-Yo effect
Yo-Yo effect happens when you lose a certain amount of weight and then regain it back. It is like a yo-yo so thus the term yo-yo effect.
If you are a goal-oriented person, you will experience yo-yo effect in all areas of your life.
And here is how:
You want to lose 10 kg.
You start going to the gym. Lifting weights, doing cardio, helping your friends move etc.
You lose 10 kg. Yeey, success!
Then you stop doing all the actions above-mentioned. And because of that, you regain the 10 kg back.
Welcome to the goal-oriented mindset.
Another example is in business:
You want to increase your sales by 20%
So you start knocking on doors, cold-calling, sending out emails, hustling.
You hit your target. Yeey, success!
Then you stop doing all the actions above-mentioned. And because of that, sales plummet down by 20%. And you are back to square one.
You see, real change doesn’s occur in the moment the goal is achieved. The goal is just a side-effect.
A side-effect of what?
Of what the successful people do. And they have a totally different mindset towards it.
And they call it:
Process-oriented mindset
A process-oriented mindset is a way of thinking that states that the change in everyday habits will cause a real and lasting change. This real and lasting change will change the behavior and patterns of thinking of the individual or an organization. It will have a side-effect in the form of tangible results commonly known as goals.
Or in plain English:
A person changes their daily habits and achieves its goals as a side-effect. And these daily habits provide a real and lasting change to the person.
Because the behavior is not goal driven (e.g. I want to read 50 books this year), the behavior is processed drive (e.g. I want to read 20 pages of a book daily).
In the first example, you quit the action as soon as you attain your goal. But afterward, you plummet back to the old ways and the change stops occurring.
In the second example, you continue the action because it is driven by a continuous process. And this process doesn’t stop at 50 books, nor 100 nor 500 books.
The real catch is that a process drive person attains far greater results (and goals) than a goal-oriented person. And that change stays consistent with the person because it is ingrained in the daily habits.
It is not something you do from time to time.
It is the way your life looks like.
Why doesn’t anyone tell us about this?
Because it is fucking boring. Yep. The only reason.
We like vanilla answers to our questions.
“How did you lose so much weight?”
“I made a daily exercise plan, counted my calory intake and maxed it to 2100”.
“Well, you can do that because you have (insert any rationalization here like) time/money/no kids etc.)
And the vanilla answer we like to hear but doesn’t help us:
“How did you lose so much weight?”
“Oh I just skipped dinner”
“Great, sounds cool. Good job”
The real secret of transformation lies in the daily activities people do. And they are, to be honest, boring. Not that hard, but just plain boring.
My boring habit
I started reading 20 pages of a book every single day. And I’ve started that on 20th of December 2016.
A year later I’ve read 47 books.
When they ask me how I did it, I ask them a counter-question:
“Do you really want to know?”
If yes, I give them my process of daily trackers, green and red color, measuring activities, Pavlov’s conditioning etc.
If no, I just tell them 20 pages a day.
Create a process, not goals for New Year’s
For the next year, don’t create a list of goals. They won’t stick. Instead, create a process.
Don’t make a goal of losing 10 kg.
Make a process of living healthy.
Don’t make a goal of reading 40 books.
Make a process of reading daily.
Don’t make a goal of writing a book.
Make a process of writing daily.
Don’t make a goal of using the day
Make a process of waking up at dawn.
Create a process instead of a goal. And real change will occur.
Now let me know about it in the comments.
What is one process you will start from 1st of January 2018 that will completely change your life?
