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by karimdag 2947 days ago
I’ve thought (and experimented) about this for a while and here’s what I came up with:

* Goals are better for the short-term (we’re talking days and weeks).

* Systems (naturally) are better for the long-term (months and years).

* The best way to system-ize something is to make it a habit.

* A system without an objective is useless and inefficient.

* Which to use ? It depends on your personality AND the task at hand.

* Defining an objective is paramount.

* Objective =/= goal. An objective is of the highest order, a goal is a part of an objective. E.g. Objective: Lose fat, goal: stop consuming sugar.
2 comments
tonyarkles 2947 days ago
System: - recurring tasks to ensure that you’re stocked on non-sugary snacks and meals

The system goal is to make the good choice the easy choice.

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deltron3030 2947 days ago
Objectives are projections of a desired state at a certain moment in time imo. Goals are the actual state at that moment in time. Stop consuming sugar wouldn't be a goal, but goal oriented objective behavior (because you can control/measure you sugar intake, materializing your objective this way). A goal would be a certain amount of lost weight.
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karimdag 2947 days ago
The example I gave wasn’t a good one. I suggest something else: think of goals as a “module”, it has a function that servers the main objective.

This idea of modules is also found in Dr Duckworth’s book: Grit.

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deltron3030 2946 days ago
The way I see it, goals are the actual thing while objectives are diffuse imaginations of something, or the zoomed out perspective. To get a clear picture of something, you have to zoom in from the diffuse one first. You define your goals after zooming in, because then it's clear what's reachable.

A hunter might have the objective to hunt down prey to satisfy his hunger. But at the time he's leaving for hunting he doesn't know what's exactly out there, he will define goals when he has gained a clear picture of the actual environment. That's when he will decide what to hunt and how.

He could decide to abandon his home and become a nomad, following the prey and have it always visible, and satisfy his main objective (hunting to eat) this way. Is this what you mean with module?

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karimdag 2946 days ago
> The way I see it, goals are the actual thing while objectives are diffuse imaginations of something, or the zoomed out perspective. To get a clear picture of something, you have to zoom in from the diffuse one first. You define your goals after zooming in, because then it's clear what's reachable.

This is exactly what I meant !

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