The Anti-New Years Resolution and Why Systems are better than goals Ep. 67
That's right I said it! I am anti-New Year's Resolution. And in today's episode, we're going to talk about why systems are better than goals and why New Year's resolution just really don't work. Welcome to Okiki podcast. My name is Fiyin Obayan. For those of you who are new, be sure to subscribe if you're on YouTube and follow me on Spotify and Apple podcasts.
So let's get to the point. Why don't I believe in this year's resolutions? Well, they simply just for a lot of people don't work. It's as high as 50% of people in North America will try and do a New Year's resolution, which is actually great considering 28% won't even try at all. But for those who do, the chances of them actually completing it are very slim.
And I think it's because we have to really think about what is the process to actually reach that goal. If you think about it, a goal isolated by itself seems really great, but it needs a pathway to get there. And so of course, I'm sure for those of you listening to podcasts today, you've heard of things like smart goals, right? And smart goals are really the start of that process. And I believe systems even get more granular into what that process really needs.
So why are systems better than goals? Well, a goal is kind of just something on a checklist. It doesn't really guide you as to how to get there. A smart goal is like the beginning steps of how you get there. But a system is really the foundation that you're going to create that becomes more than just some steps towards the goal.
But an actual lifestyle change, an actual foundation, an actual methodology that you're going to exist in to get to your goal. Let me give you an example. When I started this podcast a couple of years ago, I did everything by myself. It was fun for me because it came out of a passion. It was a hobby.
And I had fun learning about how to use the podcast system and upload my episodes and design the different infographics and edit the episodes and create the intro. All of that gave me so much life. But of course, as I grew and as my business grew, I just didn't have time to manage that anymore. So what did I do? I had to bring on help.
How do you explain to someone who isn't in your brain what your process is? And that is where systems come in. Now we know we use systems for the corporate world, right?
That's why we have project managers. That's why they use Monday.com. I'm sure you've seen the ads and all sorts of tools, but it's funny that when it comes to us as individuals, it's not always that obvious that maybe we need something like a system in place to help us manage our thoughts to help us manage our goals, to help us even manage our processes to getting to those goals. So what happened with me is that when I did get an assistant, her name is Jana.
She's awesome and she helped me really organize all of these components that made up my podcast. For me, I thought it was a very small thing. It's just one thing in my business. But turns out there's a lot of pieces right.
There's the intro and outro episode. So we had a folder for that. There's all the branding and fonts and where everything should go. There's a folder for that. There's a sequence for the blog, et cetera.
And by the time we did all that, every episode, even though it took time for me to write all that information out and make a document and create those folders. By the time we were getting every episode going, it was going so smooth. I barely had semesters for about anything. They were just happening, and I was just seeing them, and it was like, Whoa, my episodes are just happening so seamlessly. When I did actually have to get a new assistant, which I was sad to have to get a new one because she helped so much.
The process of onboarding was actually so easy that when I got Dale and I showed him the system that we had created together, it was the smoothest transition, much smoother than I ever expected. And that is what I mean. By a system, a system will initially slow you down, right. Because there's a lot of reflecting. I got that from Chalene Johnson, right.
So now you have to slow down to speed up. So system will slow you down and make you really look at the aspects in your life. Really look at what you're doing and say, okay. If this is my goal, what do I have to build? What infrastructure do I have to have in place that will become a foundation to reach that goal?
Right. So it's not just about the goal. It's like, who are you becoming in the process of reaching that goal? And that is how that goal is achieved. Right.
In terms of my example, let's say your example is that you want to create 20 pieces of content every month. Well, if you just write that down on a board, that's going to be like a challenge that you have to face. And then every month that you don't hit it, you're going to feel like I'm a failure. I didn't get those tiny pieces of content. Like I said, I would.
Maybe I should give up on the whole thing altogether. No, that's not the case at all. But if you have a system, you're going to say, okay, I need to make 20 pieces of content. So what tools do I need to make that possible? Okay, maybe I need to start slow.
I'll start with three pieces of content a week, and when that feels comfortable. I'll go up to five, right. Just to get towards your goals, because the reality is you're creating a system. You're creating a foundation. How can I do that efficiently, then can I add onto it?
Right. So that's where I would go with over making a goal. Have a system towards that goal. So the goal is still there. It's still the back of your mind, but really focus on the system because the reality is if you're doing that process overall and over again, consistently showing up, consistently doing the work consistently, you will reach that goal.
It's inevitable. Another reason why I like systems is it also changes the focus. So a lot of times when people make goals, you have to really think about why you're making those goals. Often we make goals based on what we see other people doing, right. Maybe we're comparing on social media, maybe we want a lifestyle that seems so far away and we want to achieve that.
We want that for ourselves. And so I think that sometimes when we're goal setting, we are actually setting ourselves up for failure, if that's the way we're approaching it. But the things with systems it's a discipline. It's internal, it's reflective. And eventually you're just comparing yourself with yourself, which is actually a healthy thing to do.
Now, I'm not saying that you shouldn't be around people who inspire you or are ahead of you. In fact, that's definitely recommended. I know for me personally and shameless plug on the community that I am part of the well in Saskatoon. They're a community of entrepreneur women. And honestly, I'm very self motivated.
So I was feeling like I was doing fine, just getting my business going along in that way. But by joining some of these communities and just hearing them talk about their processes during the day, their struggles during the day, different things like that and just seeing that. Okay. We're very similar. We're going through very similar things that automatically inspired me and helped me either make different decisions or more critical decisions or more wise decisions in my business just by being around them.
This was not a coaching, a form of coaching situation. This is just me being around these people. So definitely there's value in being people that are ahead of you. But where it can get toxic is when the comparison becomes, oh, so and so is here. And I'm here.
So I'm terrible. Why don't I even bother? Right. Whereas, like that so could be ten years ahead of you. And it's just not fair to yourself.
And it's not honest. It's not true. And you haven't seen where they started. So in a system, you're really focusing on, what can I do in my lifestyle today to set up for the goals I have, and then you can compare yourself to yourself. And I think instead of having that goal be like, oh, I'm just hitting that goal and that's it no, make it a lifestyle.
Think of lifestyle and continuous learning, because then as you're going through each year of your life, you can reflect this is something I personally like to do. I still do it in the new year's. I do it each time I have my birthday, which is at the end of the month of January. So I kind of get two times to really think about it. But one of the things I like to do is add up my years of life and have that number of things I'm grateful for that happened through that year. And it's always a challenge to me. I'm not always sure when I complete it. But then by the time I get through the list and I'm going up on the numbers, I'm like, I'm almost overdoing the list because there is so much to think about and you can actually start to see, oh, this is where I grew this year. This is where there are new friends or new streams of income or new growth personally.
And that's super important, too. So I think the problem with goals and just goals and resolutions on its own is I feel like it emphasizes the lack of what you don't have enough of what you aren't doing, enough of when the reality is it's a mix of both. It's a balance, right? You are trying to grow and you have grown. And how do you celebrate that?
How do you reflect that? And how do you honestly reflect that with yourself psychologically? Because if you're never winning anything ever, it's discouraging altogether. And it's also not accurate or true. Chances are, if you look at where you were last year compared to this year, you have grown.
Chances are, if you have been working on anything at all, whether it's business, whether it's personal life, whether it's friends, whether it's your mental health, and you've been putting in the work, you are further along than you were before. So really looking at lifestyle change, continuous learning and reflection is really important and then always looking for it. Like I said, it's a lifestyle change. So if you don't hit everything this year, guess what your plan is to keep going until you can. Right.
I think that even a personal goal I had last year for the new year was to work out. I wanted to do the Chloe Ting challenge. She has these challenges on YouTube. They usually last two or three weeks. And I remember I was waking up.
I was doing that before my meetings. I had so many meetings at that time and a week and a half in, and it just wasn't working anymore. Just wasn't working with me. It wasn't working with the schedule, and I was getting discouraged. And then I was like, you know what?
I'm doing this for my health. I'm doing this for lifestyle change. This doesn't have to end just because of a challenge. Let me just do this every day or let me just do this rather every week and just keep going and the changes will happen. Right?
All things equal that you don't have any blood sugar problems or whatever is going on in your life. I know everyone's journey in that area is different, but if things are working as they should just be consistent. I knew things would happen.
This is what I was trying to say about weight training. So I decided to change the goal a bit and focus on weight training and toning. And I decided that no matter what, I would do this twice a week if it ended up being on the weekend. But if I actually have time to drink the week, great. But just do that consistently.
And so that started from around March last year, and by the time I hit the fall this year, I noticed my body had changed. It had changed inevitably because it's just consistency, right. But I wasn't thinking about it. I wasn't making a big deal about some sort of me finishing some sort of challenge or how do I look or weighing myself? I didn't get into any of that.
I was just like, hey, I'm doing this for my health, literally for health reasons. And I am just going to focus on that. So that's why just make it a part of your lifestyle, make it a part of your change. Just to recap on what we talked about today, I believe that systems are better than goals because systems are the foundation and the infrastructure towards those goals, you will not achieve a goal well, unless you create the foundation in your life that facilitates that movement.
Number two, it's about lifestyle change. So it's not something that happens in the bootcamp format or Binge or overnight. No, we are looking at long continuous lifestyle number three. Look at reflection. So don't just think, oh, I hit the goal or I missed the goal.
No, let's reflect on what has happened throughout the process of going. Have you grown at all? Where have you grown and celebrated those wins as well? Right. That's really important as well.
And so that's what I have to share today on today's podcast episode. If this episode was something that you enjoyed, be sure to follow me on Apple podcast Spotify and leave a rating and review I would love to hear. Do you have a new years resolution? Are you anti new resolutions? What do you think about the systems concept that I brought to you today?
Let me know in the comments below and be sure to give you a rating on Apple podcast. Let me know on there as well.
Thank you so much for listening to the Oaky Podcast today. Thank you so much for listening to the Okiki podcast today.
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ABOUT FIYIN:
Fiyin Obayan is the founder of Okiki Consulting, where she helps business owners communicate their personal brand or company brand stories through video content, in order to communicate to their target audience.
She has been participating in video storytelling for 9 years starting with her previous Myspace Channel, and to her personal YouTube Channel. As an entrepreneur, She has learned to develop that skill for the social media and now specialized in using it for the LinkedIn platform. Through posting regular content from September 2019, She has gone from 1000 connections to 8000 connections on the platforms and gained clients and she wants to empower others to do the same.
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