The Fastest Way To Achieve Anything
Create systems
Most people don’t fail because they’re lazy.
They fail because they don’t have a system.
A system is a set of actions that produces a result.
The goal is the what. It tells you where to go.
The system is the how. It tells you what to do.
Once you understand how to build a system, achieving your goals becomes much simpler and faster. In this article, I’ll show you how to build one. But first, you need to understand the 4 parts of any system.
Before we dive in:
I built Scientific Creation. It’s a content system that gets you 500-1,000 followers per month in 30 minutes per day. Also works for other writing platforms.
Click here to get started. It’s gone after Monday.
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Systems Simplified
You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.
— James Clear
Everything works through chains:
You take an action → something happens
You repeat actions → patterns emerge
You spot patterns → predictable outcomes
A system is a deliberate version of that process. Everything you do creates an effect. So by changing your inputs, you can change your outputs.
Designing a system means identifying the inputs that lead to your desired outcome, and then measuring and improving them over time.
Most people take random action:
Random action = do something → hope it works → repeat.
System thinkers take calculated action:
System = do something → measure → adjust → repeat.
The difference between most people and systems thinkers is that the latter actually has a process that is repeatable, measurable, and improvable.
All your actions give you data that allows you to improve your system.
Every system has four parts:
Input. Process. Output. Feedback.
Environment too but let’s keep it simple by sticking to these four.
We use systems for lots of things without even realizing it:
Your workout is a system
Your writing routine is a system
Your content process is a system
For most of us, they are unconscious. But all systems follow the same loop:
Here’s what each part means:
The input is whatever you put in: time, energy, money, attention, raw material.
The process is what you do with it: the work itself.
The output is the result: a published post, a signed client, a finished project.
The feedback loop is how you evaluate your output and adjust your next action.
The difference between a conscious and unconscious system is reflection and feedback. Without feedback, you’re not running a system. You’re just doing tasks.
Feedback is what allows a system to improve.
In my experience, the main difference between creators who fail and creators who excel is that they have a repeatable content system that gets better over time.
It allows you to optimize your inputs, and this will eventually optimize your outputs.
Now let’s break down the 5 steps to build a system to achieve any goal.
System Design (Turning Goals Into Actions)
Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.
— Peter Drucker
You can build a system in 5 simple steps.
1) Pick the result.
You can’t build a useful system if you don’t know what you’re optimizing for.
So decide what you want to achieve.
It doesn’t matter if you don’t know where to start.
Just pick what you think is best.
You can (and will) change it over time.
But you can only improve and clarify something that actually exists.
2) Reverse engineer it.
Start with the end goal.
Break it down into smaller goals:
Life purpose → decade → year → quarter → month → week → day.
Then define a few daily actions that move you forward.
3) Find the high-leverage actions.
Not all actions matter equally.
The Pareto Principle, or 80/20 Rule, states that roughly 80% of outcomes (results) come from 20% of causes (inputs). It’s your job to find these 20% of causes.
These are the high-leverage activities to focus on.
In my experience, there are usually 3-5 things in any field that give you more than 90% of the results.
As a creator, these are your content, newsletters, products, and offers.
As a bodybuilder, these are your workouts, diet, sleep, and recovery.
There are lots of things that give you a 2x return on your time.
But there are only a few things that give you a 10x return on your time.
Find these actions and give them almost all of your time.
Prioritize high-leverage actions. Minimize everything else.
4) Organize the actions.
It’s not enough to do the right actions.
You also need to do them in the right order.
It’s like chess.
Moving your queen forward can either be the winning or losing move.
What matters most is when you do it.
Doing the right thing at the wrong time is the wrong thing.
The most important thing is finding the most important thing and then doing it.
Turn your actions into a clear checklist.
5) Repeat and improve.
Review your results regularly.
Feedback is reality telling you what works and what doesn’t.
So listen to it. Once a week, reflect on your results.
Do more of what works. Remove what doesn’t work.
Treat it like a loop:
Test → measure → adjust → repeat.
Treat the process like a scientist.
Do research
Set a hypothesis
Do an experiment
Analyze the results
Iterate based on data
This is how your system keeps getting better.
This is how you build a simple system that will help you to achieve anything fast.
Build it once. Improve it over time. Benefit from it forever.
Your goals will tell you what mountain to climb.
Your systems will help you to actually climb that mountain.
– Stijn Noorman
PS: don’t forget to check out Scientific Creation if you want a system that gets you 500-1,000 X followers per month in 30 minutes per day.
Click here to get started. It’s gone after Monday.
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I'm always here for the graphics, so clean my man.
Great article! You put it well. I like how you described the approach of building any system. Thanks for sharing!