Why I Don’t Have Goals (And Why You Shouldn’t Either)

Throughout my twenties, I was heavily immersed in the worlds of productivity and daily optimization. I was a devoted disciple of the self-improvement religion, and gobbled up books like Atomic Habits and the 4 Hour Workweek. I was convinced that it wasn’t skill or motivation that was holding me back in my career, but that I hadn’t found the optimal combination of morning routines and productivity “hacks.” There were two myths that I was chasing; that perfection was possible, and that striving for perfection would improve my life. 

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve taken a new attitude towards my personal and professional ambitions. This new approach works whether you’re a productivity junkie or if you think Pomodoro is just a tasty variety of pasta. The key is not to chase goals, it’s to create systems.

I’m not going to do a deep dive here, because James Clear (Atomic Habits)  literally wrote the book on this. If you’re interested, you can check out his excellent argument for why systems are better than goals. To oversimplify it: goals are finite. They’re short-term. Systems take the long view. A goal is this massive looming pressure cloud hovering over you. A system is a tool in your arsenal. A system is an everlasting energy source to keep you going.

If you’re just starting out, writing a screenplay can seem incredibly daunting. Hell, writing a single page can be difficult, never mind 90 - 115 of them. The goal of “finishing a screenplay” can seem insurmountable. I would argue that it’s also simply inadequate if you want to write as a profession. Do you want to do something, or do you want to be something? I could lock myself inside and write a screenplay in a weekend and achieve my goal that way, but what have I really gained? Most likely, just a very sloppy, bad script. On top of that, I’ll probably get a rush of cheap self-satisfaction after finishing that tells me I deserve to take two weeks off writing to relax and recharge. 

Instead, I create a system to write for twenty minutes every morning. This way I’ll be guaranteeing steady development of my creative muscles and steady progress towards eventually completing the script. There’s less risk of me pinning too much of my happiness and self-worth on the outcome of a single event. I’m not saying not to be ambitious. I have plenty of milestones I’d like to hit, but my goals all boil down to the same thing: consistency. If I can be consistent with the systems that work for me, then I don’t have to worry so much about my goals because I know that every day I’m taking one step closer to them.