This is excellent advise and goes into the `Goals vs Systems` territory. A good sensible and enjoyable read for the same would be Chapter 5 'Goals vs Systems` from [1].

From personal experience, opting for the systems approach has helped me:

- Focus on multiple activities (max 4) with time bucketing and ensuring the time bucket has a task that can be done, like the actionable gym example above

- You are not worried about reaching the goal, instead you consistently put in the effort and don't feel the void when and if any goal is completed

- Systems help a ton in tackling complex or difficult subjects.

YMMV and mind you, earlier I was goal focussed and IMHO, got lesser done.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/How-Fail-Almost-Everything-Still-eboo...

edit: added the ref [1]

Here's one but there are surely others (many entrepreneurship failures examples in this book, although they don't always go into great details): https://www.amazon.com/How-Fail-Almost-Everything-Still-eboo...

I'm this way as well and for the longest time was worried I was handicapping myself.

Until I read "How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big"[1] which makes the strongest argument I've seen for having a "talent stack" and combining skills that aren't typically combined. Each skill increases your odds and essentially this boils down to Good + Good > Excellent. You can leverage a combination of average skills to great effect.

The author describes himself as mediocre at art, decent at writing a joke and having business experience... not that noteworthy in and of themselves, but mixed together resulted in Dilbert.

1. https://www.amazon.com/How-Fail-Almost-Everything-Still-eboo...

Thinking of working with systems rather than towards goals. I got this idea from How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00COOFBA4/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?...

Learning to type - Enhanced productivity https://hkelkar.com/2014/03/02/learn-to-type-before-you-lear...

Writing a blog has been extremely rewarding. It takes effort to Blog Over the years I published a book based on the blog.

Understanding Compounding.

Learning Python for fun. Learning Python was really the stepping stone to learning other interesting things.

His book is really interesting and an easy read. I guess it pays off to write things as simple as possible.

https://www.amazon.com/How-Fail-Almost-Everything-Still-eboo...

The one thing to take away from this election is that persuasion trumps everything else. It's scary and crazy!

Read this book https://www.amazon.com/How-Fail-Almost-Everything-Still-eboo... it's all about how to build a succesful future version of yourself.

I would say 3 books did it for me: 1. How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life by Scott adams http://www.amazon.com/How-Fail-Almost-Everything-Still-ebook... 2. Choose Yourself! - James Altucher http://www.amazon.com/Choose-Yourself-James-Altucher-ebook/d... 3. Anti Fragile -Nassim Taleb http://www.amazon.com/Antifragile-Things-that-Gain-Disorder-... The first two as the names suggest are more on self-improvement and creating systems that increase the probability of long term success. The third one talks more about the things that gain from disorder thus increasing my understanding of how the world works.

That's my worry too.

Since you mentioned the latest book by Scott Adams, it's called "How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life" [0]. I read it recently and I think it's a good book. It has some nonobvious ideas, like systems thinking vs. goal-oriented thinking.

[0] - http://www.amazon.com/How-Fail-Almost-Everything-Still-ebook...

How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life. This is Scott adams take on being successful. http://www.amazon.com/How-Fail-Almost-Everything-Still-ebook...

Choose yourself is a similar themed book. http://www.amazon.com/Choose-Yourself-James-Altucher-ebook/d...

Best 16$ spent in 2013.