I never loose, I either win or learn - Nelson Mandela

If you reframe life in a way that never leads to failure you will win the game of life. You can choose one single goal, i.e. running a marathon. However, wouldn’t it be better to create a system? For example, run 1h every two days? You can run a marathon and be happy about it. But this implies that you have one shot. If everything is life or death you will die many times. Why do you care so much for such a one-time event? Do you do it for the others or for yourself?

To increase your odds to success in life you can create systems instead of goals. We can always make mistakes and unforeseen events can happen but you cannot fail a system. Systems are not black or white they understand the different colors in life. Systems allow something very important, they move you towards the end goal without failing. Networking is not a goal is a system. You connect with people and it increases your chances for different opportunities. You going to an event once in a life time is not considered networking, networking is something that you do with certain frequency.

Systems are good for other reasons as well. A system involves practicing an activity regularly. Deliberate practice improves your skill. For example, writing a blog may seem like a wearisome experience. But there are several benefits attached to it. For example, I get to improve my writing skills. At every post I try to give my best craft. They may not all be outstanding - some of them will some of them won’t - but it’s part of the system. Try different things and see what works and what doesn’t. Blogging may increase my career prospectives - that is the goal I had in mind when I started - but now it does not make that big of an impact. This website helps me to remember ideas, books, recipes, and many different things I once knew. Writing summaries of books help me to grasp the basics of each book, improves my idea retention but also allows me to retrieve it later in life in a way that I spare time to myself because I won’t need to read the entire book again. Sometimes I use a post as an excuse to research certain topic. If I want to write about something I need to first understand it and then summarize it. So, by doing that I am able to deepen into different topics.

Another important key factor about systems is that it permits you to pursue different opportunities without blinding you. Goals require focus and therefore may blind you from other chances that happen along the path while systems are not limiting. With systems opportunities will arise and you would have improved your skillset so you could take advantage of that.

In conclusion, aim to continuously improve by using systems and not willpower. Will power is limited so it is better to find a way to take the smart choice without much mental effort.