Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy
Welcome to Day 908 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.
This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom
Goals vs. Systems - Ask Gramps

Thank you for joining us for our five days per week, wisdom and legacy building podcast. This is Day 908 of our Trek and time for our Philosophy Friday series.  Each Friday we will ponder some of the basic truths and mysteries of life, and how they can impact us in creating our living legacy.  As we continue on this trek called life, sometimes we have questions about life, so our Friday trek is a time where we can ‘Ask Gramps.’   Gramps will answer questions that you would like to ask your dad or granddad, but for whatever reason, this is not possible.  No matter how old we are, I know that all of us would like the opportunity to ask dad or gramps questions about life in many areas.  We will address areas such as finances, relationships, health/fitness, business/work, home repairs/renovations, seasons of life, spiritual/Biblical questions, and any others areas that come our way.  As your fellow sojourner and mentor on this trek that we call life, it is Gramps goal to provide you with practical wisdom and advice about any area of life. It is crucial that I receive a constant flow of questions so please submit your questions to guthrie@wisdom-trek.com, and Gramps will answer your questions on our Friday podcast.

We are broadcasting from our studio at ‘The Big House’ in Marietta, Ohio.  I have always been a proponent of setting goals or milestones in life in order to achieve desired outcomes in all areas of life.  As I have matured and grown in wisdom and in life, I have realized that there is actually something more important than setting goals.  So the question today is:

“Hey Gramps, I desire to reach milestones in all areas of my life such as spiritually, physically, financially and in relationships.  I have tried to set goals but seem to quickly lose focus and rarely achieve them.  What can I do?”
Goals vs. Systems
We all have things that we want to achieve in our lives — getting into the better shape, building a successful business, raising a wonderful family, writing a best-selling book, winning a championship, and so on.

For most of us, the path to those things starts by setting a specific and actionable goal. At least, this is how I approached life when I was younger. I would set goals for business growth, for an exercise regimen, for devotional time, and relationships.

What I have come to realize, however, is that when it comes to actually get things done and making progress in the areas that are important to you, there is a much better way to do things.

It all comes down to the difference between goals and systems.
·       The Difference Between Goals and Systems
What's the difference between goals and systems?

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 a writer, your goal is to write a book. Your system is the writing schedule that you follow each week.
If you're a runner, your goal is to run a marathon. Your system is your training schedule of several month preparations starting small and incrementally increasing.
If you're an entrepreneur, your goal is to build a million dollar business. Your system is your sales, marketing, and financial process.

Now for the really interesting question:

If you completely ignored your goals and focused only on your system, would you still get results?

For example, if you desired to run a marathon in 12 months and you focused on running a little bit each day while incrementally increasing the distance each week, would you still get results?   Indeed you would.As a personal example,