It’s the start of a new year, and with it, the question of New Year’s Resolutions. When it comes to resolutions, you most likely fall into one of these camps:
- You’ve given up on resolutions. Tried. Failed. Done.
- You set up resolutions every year. Accomplish some. Fail at others.
- You accomplish your resolutions. Every time.
If you fall into one of the first two camps, then this article is for you. I’m a fan of goal-setting, including Annual Goals. And I also work with many coaching clients from those first two camps. And here’s my conclusion: for many (most?) people, rhythms are better than resolutions.
It’s based in part on this quote from James Clear, the author of
Atomic Habits:
“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”
I’ve seen this in my own life and and in the lives of my clients. Goals without systems most often fail.
Why Goals without Systems Fail
“A goal is a specific objective that you either achieve or don’t sometime in the future. A system is something you do on a regular basis that increases your odds of happiness in the long run. If you do something every day, its a system. If you’re waiting to achieve it someday in the future, it’s a goal.”
He goes on to say why this distinction is important — how, if you don’t have systems supporting your goals, you exist in a “continuous state of presuccess failure.”
If you achieve your goal, you celebrate and feel terrific, but only until you realize you just lost the thing that gave you purpose and direction. Your options are to feel empty and useless, perhaps enjoying the spoils of your success until they bore you, or set new goals and reenter the cycle of permanent presuccess failure. All I’m suggesting is that thinking of goals and systems as very different concepts has power. Goal-oriented people exist in a state of continuous presuccess failure at best, and permanent failure at worst if things never work out. Systems people succeed every time they apply their systems, in the sense that they did what they intended to do. The goals people are fighting the feeling of discouragement at each turn. The systems people are feeling good everytime they apply their system. That’s a big difference in terms of maintaining your personal energy in the right direction.”
He boils that long explanation into a simple statement:
“Losers have goals. Winners have systems.”
The Genius of the AND
That’s overly dramatic, and an example of “either-or” thinking. But if you feel like you’ve been
failing at your goals, it’s likely because you’re
falling to the level of your systems. I believe in the
Genius of the AND — you need
both goals
and systems. I also believe that
starting with healthy systems — rather than goals — is the right approach. It gives you tremendous energy and power to achieve your goals.
Are you Out-of-Rhythm?
I love systems. But when it comes to personal productivity and personal leadership, I like the word rhythms instead. Systems can feel impersonal and bureaucratic. In contrast, rhythm evokes music and life. There’s a huge difference between a life and work that’s “in-rhythm” and one that’s “out-of-rhythm.”
When I was a young pastor, I visited a woman who was admitted to the hospital for
atrial fibrillation — a heart condition that causes an irregular and often rapid heartbeat in the
upper chambers of the heart. She was experiencing exhaustion, dizziness, and a general feeling that her heart was racing and out-of-control. It wasn’t immediately life-threatening (like
ventricular fibrillation), but it was very uncomfortable and required the doctors to shock her heart to bring it back into rhythm.
As a leader, you might not be experiencing a racing heart. But you might be experiencing a racing mind and a general feeling that life and work are out-of-rhythm. In his book
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, David Allen has a great phrase for this —
ambient angst:
“An ambient angst pervades our society—there’s a sense that somehow there’s probably something we should be doing that we’re not, which creates a tension for which there is no resolution and from which there is no rest.”
David Allen’s solution to ambient angst? A trusted system, which involves multiple rhythms.
The Four Most Important Rhythms for Life and Leadership
I first learned about rhythms from my mentor Alan Ahlgrim. It’s been 40 years since we first met. He’s the man who led me to Christ and later into pastoral ministry. He’s had a lifelong ministry as a pastor and recently authored the book
Soul Strength : Rhythms for Thriving, which encapsulates a lifetime of learning. Now in his mid-seventies, he has already mentored hundreds of men and sees this life season as a time of “mentoring multipliers” through
Covenant Connections. He’s one of my longest-term mentors, and we still meet every month.
Alan has a forthcoming book in which he describes four important types of rhythms:
- Rhythms of Reflection
- Rhythms of Replenishment
- Rhythms of Relationships
- Rhythms of Responsibility
As we kick off 2025, I’ll be using Alan’s four categories to share the rhythms I’ve found personally helpful and powerful. You don’t have to choose between goals and systems. But starting with rhythms can transform your 2025 and beyond.
