“The score takes care of itself.”
Bill Walsh

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Goals are important, but overrated. Towards the end of 2019 I started making my list of goals for the upcoming year and began thinking about updating my long term goals. I created this habit in college and it had served me well, but it was starting to feel hollow.

Crazily, I had achieved most of the items on my long term goals list, and I was having a hard time dreaming up anything new.

As I was fretting over setting my goals, I discovered Atomic Habits, by James Clear (if you haven't read it, you should at least sign up for his 3,2,1 Newsletter). Clear's approach to goals was refreshing: goals are good for establishing a focus, but if you want to make some headway, then you have to start thinking about the "how" you reach those goals – what is the system you are going to create to achieve your goals. If you are interested in making progress, focus on the system and use goals as the guardrails.

No Goals, Just Vibes is my homage to James Clear – who truly brought, um, clarity to my thinking in 2020. Check out his blog postabout goals if you want to dig deeper.

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I hope the rest of your week is systematically perfect. Cheers!