Luca’s Reviews > Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones > Status Update

- Real progress is exponential, whereas perceived progress is linear, which leads to a “Valley of Disappointment”

Chapter 1 Conclusion:
- Habits compound: 1 percent better each day counts for a lot in the long run.
- Habits can be bad or good
- Small changes appear to make no difference until you break through the Plateau
- Focus on systems not goals as systems encourage constant improvement, whereas goals only encourage progress up to a point.

The purpose of setting goals is to win the game. The purpose of building systems is to continue playing the game. True long-term thinking is goal-less thinking.

It is about the cycle of endless refinement and continuous improvement. Commit to the process; not the process.

When you fall in love with the process rather than the product, you can become satisfied anytime your system is running. And a system can take the shape of any form, not just one.

#3 Goals restrict your happiness - they create an “either-or” conflict. Either you achieve your goal and you are successful, or you fail and you’re disappointed.

Goals also restrict and delay your happiness to one specific scenario that might be impossible to achieve. It makes no sense to restrict your satisfaction to once scenario when there are many paths to success.

#2 Achieving a goal is momentary - Fix the inputs and the outputs will likely be impacted lastingly. Solving a problem at the results level is only temporary, whereas solving it at the systems level is lasting.

Problems arise when you focus too much on goals and don’t spend enough time designing your systems;
#1 Winners and losers have the same goals - we just don’t hear about the losers. So goals aren’t what separates bad from good.

Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress.

If you completely ignored your goal and focused on your system, you’d still succeed. Whereas the same wouldn’t be true of focusing on a goal whilst ignoring the system.

*Goals take care of themselves if you focus on the system.*

If you’re a musician, your goal might be to play a new piece. Your system is how often you practice, how you break down and tackle different measures, and your method of receiving feedback from your instructor.