Hey there, and welcome back to another post from the Flight Action Sports official blog! We’re going in a bit of a different direction today, and writing about how you can help your team achieve its greatest potential. Although, today’s topic also applies to life in general.

So what is this mysterious topic you ask? Well it’s an interesting idea about the power of focusing on achieving systems and not goals. Sounds weird, right? Well, it might just help your team play better than ever before.

When you’re practicing for the big game, or whipping your team into shape for post-season tournaments, it’s pretty common to set a goal you all would like to achieve. Say, winning that game, or that tournament, or that county championship. Whatever it is, that’s what you’re practicing for, right?

That’s why you’re working extra hard at practice, doing those extra laps, running those extra drills. And that’s a great motivator, but what if there was a better, and more effective way of improving your team? Well, I propose to you that there is such a way. It’s called achieving systems and not goals.

The idea has been floating around the blogosphere for a while now, but it was perhaps illustrated most eloquently by James Clear, blogger, weightlifter, and photographer. In his conception of the idea, Clear states:

“If you’re a coach, your goal is to win a championship. Your system is what your team does at practice each day. If you’re a writer, your goal is to write a book. Your system is the writing schedule that you follow each week. If you’re a runner, your goal is to run a marathon. Your system is your training schedule for the month. Now for the really interesting question:

If you completely ignored your goals and focused only on your system, would you still get results?

For example, if you were a basketball coach and you ignored your goal to win a championship and focused only on what your team does at practice each day, would you still get results?

I think you would.”

Sounds a bit to the contrary of most sports teams’ methods, no? But think about it for a moment. If you set your goal to win the Flight Action Sports San Diego County Championships, that’s a great fixed point to work towards. You can work harder, and practice longer, knowing it’ll help you achieve your goal. That’s great! But what if you worked towards a system? What if you said: “Guys, every practice we’re going to practice harder and longer until it becomes the norm.” What would happen? Well, it’s safe to say you’d have a pretty good shot at winning that County Championship title. But there’s more to it than that. Your team would get used to giving it their all at practice. They wouldn’t feel like that when they achieved their goal that they could stop working so hard.

It seems to me, that what it really boils down to is if you focus on achieving a system and not a goal, you reap the long term benefits you’d like to achieve, as well as the added benefit of always continuing to improve. So the next time you’re thinking about a good goal to set for your team, why not focus on a system instead? It might just make your team better than they’ve ever been before.

So what do you think, athletes and fans? Interested in trying out this idea? Or would you rather just set a solid goal and work until you earn it? Let us know in the comments below, or on Facebook and Twitter!

For more on this concept, you can read the full article by James Clear on his blog at http://jamesclear.com/goals-systems?hvid=4pbka.

As always, thanks for reading, and keep soaring to new heights!