Why Goals Don’t Get You Results — Systems Do

“You don’t rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems.”

This isn’t a quote from a systematic trader. This is a quote from the current masters champion Rory McIlroy. This was originally from James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits. Hearing Rory, a world class athlete, reflect on this hit home for me as a trader.

Rory recently completed the grand slam after 11 years of trying, cinching it a couple of weeks ago at the masters. 

In an interview after he stated that quote at the beginning of this. Listening to that quote really resonated with me and I wanted to share it with you.

I have been fortunate enough to be in a position to speak with traders that are new to the game and those that have been involved for a very long time. There is always one clear difference between the two. One has a system and the other doesn’t. Simple as that. 

In old live streams I used to add quotes at the beginning to get traders thinking about what they are trying to achieve. 

In my opinion most new and many retail traders focus too much on the short term, skipping steps that will help them with longevity. 

Set Your Goal

Here are some of my trading goals:

• Secure $250,000 in trading capital by 2027. 

• Follow trading rules for 10 trades in a row (this includes trade management).

• Create and continually develop a macro trading strength meter.

• Automate one trading strategy.

I always set goals at the beginning of the year, no matter how big or small they are. Goals come in all forms, no matter how small or big the goal is, we still have to implement some strategies or systems in order to achieve them.

Let’s use one of my personal goals, that has nothing to do with trading.

One of my personal goals this year is to lose weight for my wedding in September. I started at 125kg and now down to 118kg this year so far. My goal is to get down to 100kg by the time my wedding comes around. 

To get to this I need to implement a system. 

First I worked out my maintenance calories which were around 3,000 calories a day to maintain my starting weight then put myself in a caloric deficit. To help with this I downloaded a calorie tracking app and monitor what I eat to stay in the deficit. 

That’s a real example outside of trading of setting a goal, then putting a plan in place to achieve it. Now some days I may be off it, some days I might be lower than it, but the point is there is a plan. 

Let’s look at a trading goal. 

The goal I want to achieve by 2027 is to reach $250,000 in trading capital. 

That’s a decent size goal to have in my opinion, especially in this day and age where we have access to so much in terms of prop funding. When I first started there weren't really any prop firms apart from institutional ones, and they required some really strong trading performances for a very long period of time. But the capital they let you trade is much higher. 

What system do I need to put in place? 

1. The easy one is going to be getting access to the capital. I can leverage prop accounts to achieve the capital amount. My plan is to steadily build exposure by acquiring $50,000 prop accounts, one at a time, over the next 4-6 months. This pacing keeps my mental load manageable while giving me ample capital runway.

2. I need a trading system to pass the accounts, my strategy right now is more than fine for this. It is a swing trading system that aims to make 4% a month by using a risk of at least 0.5% per trade. So I can use my already existing strategy to achieve this.

3. I then need to create a disciplined routine. What I mean by this is creating a routine that keeps me in the right mindset and keeps me focused on the markets. One of my systems involves updating the currency strength meter at 10pm every evening. This keeps me focused, I can set alerts and be ready when I get to my screen the next day. 

4. I can work on continuous growth, that means trying to strengthen areas I feel weak in my trading. Reach out to previous mentors and friends to help me go over my plans and ideas. Learn more about markets and bring in more data to help make more educated decisions. 

The truth is goals are easy to set. We can all write down a goal on a piece of paper or in the notes on our phones. But without a system, that goal will always remain just a goal. 

Whether it’s building a $250,000 fund to trade with, or losing weight for a wedding. The result always depends on the system you commit to, not the goal you set. 

So the real question isn’t what do you want to achieve? It’s what system are you building to get you there? 

Drop me a message or leave a comment on LinkedIn, I’d love to hear about it, and if you’re stuck, I’m always happy to share ideas on how to build a system that sticks.

Peace!