Do you want to know what went on in my head as a 12-year-old schoolboy? Of course you do – why wouldn’t you?
Under my curly mop of hair, swirling around in my still-developing brain, was a mental cocktail of an over-eagerness to please, mixed with a crippling fear of failure.
So whenever we had to sit down and commit goals to paper – a practice my school tended to employ a lot – I always struggled to define and immortalise a goal in the eternal annals of my $2 spiral-spine notebook.
I’m much older now but I don’t really feel much better about goals. I’ve always struggled with goals – the lofty, far-off, seemingly unattainable goals.
Which is why when I came across these comments by James Clear, I stopped in my tracks. James distinguishes between a goal and a system.
“If you’re a coach, your goal is to win a championship. Your system is what your team does at practice each day… If you’re an entrepreneur, your goal is to build a million dollar business. Your system is your sales and marketing process.” – James Clear
What follows is painfully obvious: if you forgot about the goal, and focused solely on the system then you’ll still achieve your goal at the end.
Most people fail to realise their goals because the goal is too disconnected from their current situation. Achieving the goal is too far away. Goals are overwhelming and do very little when it comes to keeping you on track each and every day.
But what if you just forgot about the goal? What if you focused solely, 100% on the system?
You see, every small step of your system is a gratifying win in and of itself. Feeling an achievement every day will keep you motivated and moving forwards, much more effectively than focusing on the goal.
If you realigned your focus to the daily incremental, practical, achievable mini-goals, you’ll inevitably end up achieving the overall goal you wanted all along.
And then I realised, Holy moly! That’s exactly what we’re doing with Canity!
I knew about this mind-hack all along! With Canity, we developed a series of short, fun videos that are designed to be watched in bite-sized parts at regular intervals, with the aim of helping staff train themselves in customer service. And subscribers to Canity experience the clear path to success Mr Clear describes in his blog!
Instead of Mr John Smith deciding that his hardware store’s customers are going to experience the best service this side of tea time at Buckingham Palace, and then dismally failing to connect his employees’ heads with his noble goal, he subscribes to an online training platform.
All of a sudden, the focus is on the system. Each day the only ‘goal’ on the horizon is a 2-5 minute animated short, at the end of every day.
Achievable. Enjoyable. Motivating.
If you’re struggling to see results in your business and find it frustrating that no one around seems to possess the binoculars to spot your corporate vision far off in the distance, perhaps it’s time to reassess your tactic.
You can bounce financial incentives off employees until your own cheques bounce off the bank. You can make your employees meet uninspiring seminar givers until they start day-dreaming about meeting their maker instead.
Or you can forget setting, chasing and missing goals, and focus on one step at time. You can do it – with Canity.
