Humans are not used to thinking in systems. Most of us have a spontaneous nature and we like to improvise.
What does that get us? Usually, unpredictable results. In our personal lives, it’s not that big of a deal because we are also highly adaptable as a species. But what about a business? Is making things up as you go beneficial to your business or to you as the mind behind your business?
If you’ve been doing this for a while, you probably know the answer already.
The shift from having a goal-oriented mindset to thinking in systems
One of the first steps most people take when starting a business is deciding what they want — setting up a goal.
“I want […].”
You can fill the blank with anything: profit; financial freedom; success;
As you can see, setting up a goal is easy, so most entrepreneurs assume that “chasing” that goal directly is the fastest, most straightforward way to attain it. That our natural abilities for adaptation, improvisation and intelligence are enough to make that goal happen.
That’s a lie we tell ourselves.
Goals, by themselves, are not enough, they are just the direction. Setting up a system from the beginning not only helps you accomplish your goals, but it saves you time, energy and money.
The truth about goals:
#1 Winners and losers share the same goals.
Let’s say two people want to become millionaires, and only one of them succeeds. What differentiates them? It’s obviously not the goal they set. That means the key is in the process they employed.
#2 Goals are temporary
They only change your life for a short while before you have to do it all over again.
Let’s say your goal is to pay all your debts by the
end of the year. Of course, that’s a good goal, but what happens when you reach the end, you have all your debts paid, but have no savings, and you realize you need to borrow money again? You solved your problem just temporarily.
#3 Goals restrict your happiness
Modern psychology has shown us real evidence for how our brains work. Constantly setting goals desensitizes us to achieving them and leaves us feeling more and more empty after reaching each milestone, especially when there was a lot of effort put in.
#4 Goals are at odds with long-term progress
Focusing on achieving each goal, one by one, means you always go back to where you started from. Maybe with a bit more experience, but the work and time you have to put in will be roughly the same. In the long term, no real improvement in your quality of life will be noticeable.
Stop doing each menial task everyday
If you spend so much time just doing everything that needs to be done for your business, you’ll waste more time than you can afford – literally. This leads to wasting money.
So, in order to see real tangible results, you need to start seeing your business from a larger perspective and invest some time into creating a system that you can adapt and upgrade as you go.
For example, if you manage a team, instead of doing back and forth communication through emails, calls, text messages all day, you could invest some time into setting up a task management application for your projects and teach your team to use it as well.
This will take more time and effort in the beginning, but after everyone gets the hang of it, it will save hundreds of hours for you in the long run.
And this is just a simple example of how you can systemize your everyday tasks. The truth is there is a lot more you can do to free up your time and waste less resources.
So stop chasing goals and instead take steps to systemize anything you can when it comes to your business.
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