How to fail at 10,000 push ups in a 14 day quarantine

Goals suck.

The easiest way to fail at a goal of 10,000 push-ups in a 14 day quarantine is to try and do 10,000 push-ups in 14 day quarantine. I attempted this and around day 10 and 6500 push-ups in my right shoulder stopped working.

After last week’s article about preferences my mum asked me about goals. She said “if we don’t have goals how can we achieve anything?” I thought about this and realised that goals are much like preferences. If we miss them we are disappointed. Worse still if we achieve them maybe we didn’t aim high enough. Why was I attached to the idea of doing 10,000 push-ups? Which ultimately caused me to injure myself.

It reminded me of a book written by Scott Adams (author of Dilbert) called “How to fail at almost everything and still win big.” There is a chapter about systems vs goals.

Systems thinkers constantly make tweaks to systems in their lives which allows for constant gradual improvement. Goals are secondary to the systems. Goals are more like benchmarks. You could say that everyone who achieves a goal has systems to get there. Goal oriented people are either hitting or missing their goals, reducing current happiness. While systems people succeed every time they use their system.

If you’re a writer, your goal is to write a book. Your system is the writing schedule you follow each week. If you’re a runner, your goal is to run a marathon. Your system is your training schedule for the month. If you’re an entrepreneur, your goal is to build a million dollar business. Your system is your sales and marketing process.

In my case of the push-ups I should have made push-ups as part of a balanced work out and built up the muscles around my shoulders over time. I should have been a person who does push-ups not someone who can do 10,000 push-ups. Trying to do 10,000 push-ups is a dumb goal. Systems trump goals every time. Systems create lasting habits.

As I type this with my sore shoulder I leave you with a question. What goal do you have in mind that could be flipped into a system?

Your friend Barron.

“The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.” Michelangelo Buonarroti

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