It’s easy to get caught up in the daily grind, letting your career or personal life drift without a clear destination. But to achieve truly meaningful success, you need two things: a North Star to guide you and a System to carry you there.
1. Clarify Your North Star
What is your ultimate destination? Your North Star is your long-term vision—what you want your life to look like in 5, 10, or even 20 years. Don’t be vague; make it tangible. Ask yourself:
What are my core values?
What does professional success look like for me?
What personal achievements am I striving for?
Once you have that clarity, you’ve established the “why” and the destination. This long-term direction serves as the filter for all the decisions you make today.
2. Break the Journey Down
A 20-year goal can feel overwhelming. The key is to break it down into manageable steps. Think of these as waypoints on your map. What are the small, intermediate goals you need to hit this year, this quarter, or even this month to stay on course for your long-term vision?
These smaller goals are the proof that you’re moving forward. They provide immediate satisfaction and help maintain momentum.
3. Build a System of Habits, Not Just Goals
This is the most critical shift in mindset. Goals are the destination; systems are the vehicle.
Focusing only on a goal can lead to a boom-and-bust cycle. Once the goal is hit, you stop doing the actions that got you there. A system, on the other hand, is a collection of daily or weekly habits that, over time, build momentum and inevitably lead to your desired outcome.
Ask yourself: What small action can I take consistently that will move me closer to my North Star?
For Example...
My personal experience with marathon running perfectly illustrates the power of a system over a singular goal.
Back in 2003, as a project for a psychology class, I put together a plan to train for my first marathon. My now-wife, Alina, decided to train with me. We found a training book by a former professor of mine on training for a marathon. In it, he advised against chasing a specific time; instead, the goal for your first marathon was simply to complete the marathon.
The true value was in the system the book laid out. Each chapter was one week of training, detailing short, mid-range, and long runs, along with tips on motivation, nutrition, and body care.
The System: A set schedule of specific runs that built upon the previous week, incrementally extending the long-run distance up to 18 miles.
The Philosophy: If you can run 18 miles, you can run 26.2. The achievement wasn’t a sudden event on race day; it was the inevitable result of consistently following the system.
We completed that first marathon in Houston. The training system was so effective that our friends, Matt and Katie (in the photo), asked us to help them train for the next one. We all completed the Chicago marathon, and I even shaved my time down to four hours. The system continued to prove its worth. Over our two years in grad school, we ended up training ten different people, all of whom completed their marathons.
The Lesson
We succeeded not because of a one-time surge of motivation for a goal, but because we committed to a repeatable, progressive system.
To reach your own long-term success, stop fixating solely on the finish line. Define your North Star, and then dedicate your energy to building the powerful, daily system that will carry you there. Doing this will almost guarantee success!