Debunking the Goal-Oriented Mindset

You ever feel like the man above, looming in the darkness trying to find the light in the midst of life? Feel like you’re caught up in a series of rat races to accomplish a feat quicker and faster than the rest or according to a particular timeline? Goal-oriented thinking has clouded society into a matrix that is poised to fail at one point or another. Today, I’d like to reshape your focus from a goal-oriented mindset to systems thinking to adopt a more holistic approach to anything and everything that comes your way.

Goal-Setting

Let’s start out first with the pros of goal setting. Imagine laying in bed and having all these lofty milestones and ambitions for yourself. You devise a plan to set out and achieve them, great. What are the true benefits of having set these goals?

1. Focused Direction

   By setting a goal, there is only one aim and focus you have your eyes set on. There is a sense of running in your own lane and anything else outside of it has no bearing on your attention. We often find ourselves lost in the midst of everything that is thrown our way in life, so setting a goal can help center us and achieve a clear direction to move towards.

2. Prioritization

   Similar to having direction, our life priorities can be centered around goals we’ve set. Too often, our priorities will continuously change from one instant to the next based on external influences. By setting a goal, you will have a greater awareness of your priorities and an anchor to stick to them when faced with a situation where you may feel inclined to change them for the short-term.

3. Motivation

   Arguably the greatest benefit of setting a goal, motivation is hard to come by without some driving force. Goals have an underlying emotional basis attached to them that thrust us into action. The satisfaction of knowing what the other side of achieving the goal, if lofty and desirable enough, propels us forward with the strength and vigor to get after it.

4. Productivity

   As a result of the other benefits, you will reap the rewards of becoming more productive with your time as a result of having set your goal initially. Your goals become the source of action that would have otherwise not occurred.

In spite of the above benefits, goal setting can have its drawbacks:

1. Stress and Pressure

   Goals can often add unnecessary stress and pressure in a variety of forms. The difficulty of the goal in terms of the outright effort and ability gap between your current state and desired state can leave you dazed. Similarly, goals are often tied to a specific end date that can feed into the pressure when the clock slowly closes in on a predefined deadline.

2. Lack of Creativity

   In setting a goal, you create a one lane perspective and are unaware of the stimuli outside of this lane that often feeds creativity. With such a focused intent, there is a limit to the freedom that creativity can be derived from. The constraints of your goal will keep you from achieving fluid-state creativity that can actually benefit your goal.

3. Narrowed Focus

   Alluded to earlier, your focus and aim is narrowly centered on the goal and path that need to be followed in order to achieve said goal. So many other actions and events take place outside of the course of your vision that will pass you by when they could have been instrumental in your path.

4. Too Results-Oriented

   You often hear it time and time again: Life is a journey, not a destination. Goals wire yourself to focus solely on the outcome and simply getting there at some point. This overlooks the actual journey of getting to said outcome and the vicissitudes that come about the process of the journey.

Systems-Thinking

Feeding off the last point about how most problem-solution events are about the journey and not the outcome, we find ourselves situated well for systems-thinking. Before going on further, let me clarify what systems-thinking is about in this context:

Systems-thinking is the method of holistically approaching a given situation and understanding its interrelation to other situations.

One of the biggest benefits of adhering to systems-thinking is the fact that you are never anchored to a particular context or space. Take for example your own work-life situation. You will go through lulls and spells where trying to tackle one problem in your work life will have no utility in tackling another problem when it comes to, say for instance, your health problems. With systems-thinking, you will have a greater propensity for understanding the core elements of any situation and context and how your past experiences can color your approach to the situation at hand.

Systems-thinking works best in scenarios where there are chronic problems and the issue is of great importance. I think it’s fair to assume that this can sum up every one of our lives at some point in time. The issue with approaching each of the problems that come up in life with goal-setting is that it’s at odds with true understanding and a long-term, adaptable, and flexible mindset and perspective. In effect, goal-setting leads you into the yo-yo effect, most commonly seen with dieting (though I recommend a healthier way of approaching eating with systems thinking here). Systems-thinking, on the other hand, will yield greater progress for the long-term in any arena of life, regardless of how far-fetched it may seem given your capabilities.

Now none of this is to say that you shouldn’t give up goal-setting all together. Goal-setting is indeed an important step to define actionable steps and envision a path forward. However, goal-setting alone can only work from moment to moment and provide short-term wins. Systems-thinking will allow you to further stretch your mind and creativity for long-term progress towards the process to get to your end-goal. Go ahead and give systems-thinking a go, and let me know if it’s something that has helped you for the better!

“[…] vision without systems thinking ends up painting lovely pictures of the future with no deep understanding of the forces that must be mastered to move from here to there.” - Peter M. Senge