I've had a lot of success actually combining goals with systems. As in, I had the goal to quit smoking and to do that I borrowed a system from an addiction therapist I listened to on the Joe Rogan podcast:
Identify what makes me want to smoke and when, and pay close attention to those 'trigger' mechanisms. Start the day by counting how many cigarettes I had in my box. Each time I had a 'trigger' to smoke, I would pull out a pocket notebook, mark down a tally, and then tell myself "This cigarette can wait 30 minutes".
30 minutes later, if I had the same, or a different trigger to go outside and smoke, repeat the process. At the end of the day I'd count how many tally marks I had made with how many cigarettes are left in the box.
This gave me something I could visually track, it helped me pay attention to my habit versus blindly indulging in every nic-fit that came across, and within a month I had quit smoking.
This is just anecdote, but Goals vs. Systems might not be the best way of looking at this conceit; perhaps Goals contextualized within a system are the keys?
Hrm. Good question. I'd say when you sort of 'boil off' all the other stuff yeah. I've tried just sheer willpower before and would always fall back, but combined with taking stock of what made me want to smoke and tracking the progress I was making made the goal to quit smoking a little less hectic because I was actively paying attention to my addiction and what fed into it.
Identify what makes me want to smoke and when, and pay close attention to those 'trigger' mechanisms. Start the day by counting how many cigarettes I had in my box. Each time I had a 'trigger' to smoke, I would pull out a pocket notebook, mark down a tally, and then tell myself "This cigarette can wait 30 minutes".
30 minutes later, if I had the same, or a different trigger to go outside and smoke, repeat the process. At the end of the day I'd count how many tally marks I had made with how many cigarettes are left in the box.
This gave me something I could visually track, it helped me pay attention to my habit versus blindly indulging in every nic-fit that came across, and within a month I had quit smoking.
This is just anecdote, but Goals vs. Systems might not be the best way of looking at this conceit; perhaps Goals contextualized within a system are the keys?