In 2012, I became the Head Football Coach and Athletic Director at the school where I had been the Head Wrestling Coach and a teacher for the previous seven years. Over the next few years as I spend more and more time at my job, my weight ballooned to an unhealthy and uncomfortable 251 lbs at age 40 and standing 5’10. Not good.
I decided it was time to make some changes. The two main areas that I focused on was being active and recording what I was eating. In terms of being active, I didn’t do anything specific other than to try and do something active every single day. That could mean running, hiking, going for a walk with my kids, taking the kids for a bike ride, mountain biking, etc. I didn’t really worry about anything other than getting out and enjoying myself. The other change I made was to bike anywhere I would normally drive. This included runs to the grocery store, taking the kids to the library and opening up the weight room.
For my online nutrition journal, Myfitnesspal.com did a good job of tracking my macronutrients and calories over the course of the day. My agreement with myself was that I could eat whatever I wanted so long as I tracked it. As the summer went on, I really dialed in what I was eating both for performance and satisfaction. By October, I had lost over 40 lbs and raced in the Seattle Super Spartan which was around a 9 mile obstacle course. I’ve been able to stay active (although during the school year I had to change what I was doing to stay active) and with a few breakdowns, kept my diet under control and feeling pretty good. During that process, I stumbled upon two concepts that I would become more familiar with over the course of the next few months: Goals vs. Systems (as well as building habit loops as described here).
Mike Smith said in the book You Win the Locker Room First that, “Every team in the NFL starts the season with the same goal: win the Super Bowl.” So, the question arises what do to do to motivate your team when the season starts 0-3? Or 1-5?
Goals and Goal Setting are widely accepted as an important ingredient in high performing individuals and teams. Many major programs, businesses, performers, etc., regularly post, track and evaluate their goals as an essential part of their day to day routines. However, for every elite performer, there are an equal number, if not more of goal setters who come up short or abandon their goals prematurely. One might assume this is due to a lack of discipline but, isn’t it just as likely that there are other alternative methods that may be more effective at “reprogramming” us into high performing individuals and teams.
Goals vs. Systems. In my personal example of how I was able to become more active, I had discovered the concept of using a system, although I didn’t know it at the time. It wasn’t until later that I heard Dilbert creator Scott Adams talk about his theory on the Tim Ferris Podcast. In the interview, Adams explained why he thinks that systems, rather than goals are a smarter way of pursuing personal and professional growth.
“You could word glue goals and systems together if you chose. All that I’m suggesting is that thinking of goals and systems as 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 success 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 every turn. The systems people are feeling good every time they apply their systems. That’s a big difference in terms of maintaining your personal energy in the right direction.” -Scott Adams in How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big,
So, what are some ways that Systems vs. Goals can be applied to different endeavors? Adams suggest the following examples:
“In the world of dieting, losing twenty pounds is a goal, learning to eat right is a system. In the exercise realm, running a marathon in under four hours is a goal, but exercising daily is a system. In business, making a million dollars is a goal, but being a serial entrepreneur is a system.”
How might we apply this to organized athletics? Well, you do not have to go further than the University of Alabama and Nick Saban and “The Process”. Rather than focusing on outcomes, Saban has built his success on the concept that players and coaches need to focus not on the SEC or National Championship but rather the task at hand such as this drill, the next play, this meeting, etc. We can all break down the steps to being the version of our own best self and best of all, it’s probably almost 100% within our control.
A system that I have had for a while now for professional development has been to find coaches, outside of the area where I live who are doing what I want to do and then go out of my way to learn from them. High School Football coaches visit college programs every spring to learn from the experts but I have found that visiting other high school programs is much more productive for me. As a wrestling coach I learned a ton from visiting and bringing in Dave Crowell from Nazareth, PA and the Clovis Wrestling staff for camps and clinics. As a football coach, I’ve visited several programs in New York, Texas and Florida and had coaches such as Dale Mueller of Highland HS, KY, Rick Darlington of Apopka, FL and Randy Jackson of Grapevine HS, TX do clinics for my staff. The information that we got from these interactions have played a big part of my development as a coach and what we’ve done with our program.
I wrote about how we apply “The Process,” in an earlier post that you may find helpful. While I still believe in having goals, objectives, etc., I do try to think about ways that I can build systems as well as systems that I am already using. If you have a system you use for your program or yourself and are willing to share, please post it on our Facebook page or tweet at me @nathanstanley.