Goals vs Systems

By David Neeve

“Goals are for people who care about winning once.
Systems are for people who care about winning repeatedly.”

I received the above quote in an email last week from ‘Atomic Habits’ author James Clear (which is a terrific book in case you’re curious) and the sentiment really resonated with me. For those of you who are clients of One Wealth Advisors, you know that so much of the financial planning based work we do is goal driven. Common goals we see are: covering education costs, purchasing a home, annual travel, providing financial assistance for a parent, etc. Yet at the same time, we are obsessed with trying to systematize optimal actions over time: the importance of annual saving, investment diversification, working with a tax professional, estate planning, etc. because at the end of the day we all intuitively understand that it is the systemic habits that help drive continual goal achievement.

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