Why Smart People Still Don't Reach Their Goals

(Transcript edited for clarity.)

Hi, I'm Wes. Welcome to Why Smart People Still Don't Reach Their Goals. This is Your Life Systems.

I've made a list of seven things, or seven reasons, that I know through personal experience can explain why smart people still sometimes don't reach all their goals.

I'm educated. I've studied a lot. I have degrees and advanced degrees. I'm fairly smart, mostly from reading so much throughout my life, but if you want to judge intelligence by schooling, I've got that too.

The seven points I'm going to cover today are things I've learned through personal experience looking back over my life.

If you're familiar with any of my other episodes, or even just the name of the channel, Your Life Systems, you know I focus on creating systems to make my life better and helping you figure out how to create systems to make your life better.

Looking back over my life, goals have always been very important to me.

When I've had goals I didn't achieve, or didn't achieve easily or within the time frame I thought was reasonable, I started seeing these things over and over again.

That's one thing that led me to creating better systems for my life, and hopefully it will help you create better systems for your life.

So, seven things.

The first one is: knowledge and execution are different skills.

Just because you know something doesn't mean you're going to execute it.

I've found this is true even when I might know everything I need to know.

I often say, 'I know what I need to do,' or I'll say, 'You already know what you need to do.'

The problem is that knowing something and executing it - doing it - are two different things.

Sometimes I can know something, but if I don't have the proper system in place to help me execute it, it still doesn't work.

That's one reason smart people sometimes don't achieve their goals.

Second, smart people can overcomplicate simple problems.

I laugh at myself there because every once in a while, I'll be working on an issue, a problem, or figuring out how to achieve a goal, and I have to stop myself because I'm overcomplicating it.

Sometimes the simple answer is the most effective or the best answer.

Often in my life, I use younger people as sounding boards when I get stuck.

I've used both of my children for this over the years.

If I'm working on a problem or goal and I just can't seem to get a breakthrough, I'll take it to one of my children or another younger person and tell them what I'm trying to do.

It doesn't always work out this way, but sometimes they hear what I have to say and come back with the simplest thing that actually solves everything I've been overcomplicating.

It's always good to be knowledgeable, to be smart, and to know things.

But it can also come with a little bit of a curse because complex problems often require complex solutions.

Sometimes, if you're too smart, you instantly try to assign a complex solution to a simple problem.

So every once in a while, I have to take a step back and ask myself, 'Why am I struggling? Is this truly a complex problem, or is this a simpler problem and I'm overcomplicating it?'

Third, overthinking can look productive.

I've spent a lot of time over the years training myself not to do busy work, but when I was younger, I fell into the busy-work trap.

I would be doing something, but it wasn't productive.

I was thinking over and over, thinking more and more, instead of taking action.

This includes researching, planning, refining, or reconsidering the way I've done something instead of taking action.

That ties into one of the later points, and I'll explain it more then.

Thinking can be productive. Don't get me wrong.

But there's a time to stop thinking and start taking action.

The point I'll get to in a little bit that ties into this is getting feedback.

You can't get feedback on a system or your goal plans until you start taking action.

So don't fall into the trap of overthinking things just because it feels productive while never actually doing anything.

Number four: goals, especially big goals, still need systems.

I talked at the beginning about how I've spent my life trying to create systems to make achieving goals easier or more straightforward.

Big goals aren't always easy, but with the proper system and plan in place, they become easier, less difficult, and help you get through the hard spots.

No matter what your goals are, you still need to consider what systems you can create or put in place to help you reach those goals easier and/or faster.

Number five: you have to choose.

Smart people often see many possible paths.

I have this almost every time I get a business idea and start writing it out and working through different options.

I see dozens of paths, and that can become a form of overthinking or procrastination because you have to choose what you think the best path is.

It doesn't mean it's always the best path.

But instead of trying to think of more paths, look at the paths you've already laid out or thought through.

Pick the best one and get started.

Number six - and this is where I said it was going to tie in later - feedback matters more than being right the first time.

Smart people can think, 'We're smart. We can figure this out. We've thought of everything. We've got this perfect plan, so it's going to be right the first time.'

Then if something goes wrong, we can be crushed.

It's like, 'Wow, how did that happen? I've already thought that through.'

But what I've learned is that so often, even if I thought it was the perfect plan, once I started getting feedback from taking action, I saw where the problems were or where I needed to think about things longer, more, or dive deeper.

So this goes back to taking action, but sometimes overthinking is a waste of time.

Sometimes you think things through, get one or two good plans, and then it's time to pick one and start taking action.

Here's the great thing about systems and goals.

You build or create your goals, you create your plan, and then you create or put systems in place to help you achieve those goals.

But they're your goals and they're your systems.

You can adjust as you get feedback and as you learn.

The only way you do that is to put something into action, start doing it, get feedback, and adjust.

The seventh one ties in with the others: consistency often beats brilliance.

Consistency.

Consistently taking one small step that brings you closer to your goal is usually a lot more helpful and worthwhile than thinking through and coming up with a better plan.

Create a plan, break it down into the smallest steps possible, and consistently take action on those small steps that bring you closer to your goal.

The more often you do this, the more feedback you get.

Then you can evaluate and adjust your goal plans and the systems you've put in place or created to help you reach your goals.

Pick something.

Be smart about it.

Don't spend too much time on it.

Pick a good option.

Start taking action.

Consistently do the actions.

Get feedback.

Evaluate and adjust as you move along.

If you evaluate and find something that's not working, that's not a failure.

It's not a failure.

You just found one thing that's not working, so you create a system, adjust your system, or maybe even adjust your goal if that's what you need to do.

The important thing is to get into action.

Take consistent action, and that leads to feedback and improvement and gets you closer to your goals.

Looking back on the goals I didn't achieve or reach the first time, I realized I didn't have an informational problem most of the time.

I already knew what I was supposed to do.

My problem was that I hadn't built, created, or plugged in the correct systems to consistently work toward the goals, consistently make progress, and consistently get feedback, evaluate, and adjust.

So I'm going to leave you with this.

Knowledge helps. There's no doubt about it.

Being smart is a good thing.

Try to get smarter.

All of us should keep trying to learn.

Keep trying to get smarter.

Knowledge is a good thing.

But systems can help you turn that knowledge into consistent action, and consistent action is what is going to help you reach your goals.

I'm Wes. This is Your Life Systems.

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Check out the free guide at YourLifeSystems.com.

Take care.

What's Next?

·        Choose one goal where you already know more than enough to take the next step.

·        Ask whether you are overcomplicating a problem that may have a simpler answer.

·        Limit planning long enough to choose one reasonable path and act on it.

·        Build or adjust a system that makes the next action easier to repeat.

·        Use feedback from real action to improve the plan instead of trying to perfect it in advance.

·        Break the goal into small steps and focus on consistent execution.

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