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‘A goal basically means that until you hit your goal state, you’re inherently failing. When you are working towards your goal, you’re still failing, failing, failing, until you reach the goal and then you succeed.

Imagine that your strategy or system is to study for two hours every night. As the evening approaches, this strategy feels achievable – after all, you will achieve it in a matter of just two measly hours. This feels feasible, and things that feel attainable also happen to feel motivating and energising.

Alter tries to sit down for a couple of hours every month and think about what direction he is aiming to go in and how he wants to allocate his resources and efforts. But he doesn’t set goals. Instead, he sets systems. ‘Instead of saying, for example, “My goal is to write 100,000 words,” I reframe it and say, “My system is that every morning for an