Goals vs Systems: How to Stay Consistent With Fat Loss

Nikkiey: If everybody right now can just say, you know what, I am so happy that I get to do this on a daily basis. I get to show up for myself. I get to eat healthy. I get to work out. I freaking love this. I love my body where I'm at. I'm going to love it even more when I reach where I want to get to. I don't care how long it takes. I'm here for the journey. I'm here for the ride. I'm here for the lifestyle. If you all can accept that right now, you don't have to wait to give yourself permission to be happy.

What's up, you guys? Welcome back to The WarriorBabe Show with Nikkiey Stott, co-founder of WarriorBabe. On this podcast, we talk about mindset, methodologies, and tactics that will help you lose body fat, build muscle, be strong, and feel insanely confident. I'm your host, Nikkiey Stott, and welcome to this special episode of bringing you guys live into one of our VIP coaching calls. The 1,000-plus women inside of this call are all working towards becoming stronger, more confident versions of themselves through one-on-one coaching with WarriorBabe. And WarriorBabe's mission, if you don't already know it, is to help 100,000 women plus, and go beyond that, through sustainable, realistic fitness methodologies, achieve their desired body composition, no matter what their age is. And each day, we get closer and closer to hitting that 100,000 number. So I hope this live training helps you. And maybe if you aren't already a WarriorBabe, then you will be one soon. Enjoy.

You guys know that I love talking about mindset stuff. Mindset's like the bottom of that iceberg, right? It's the things that you don't see. Whereas the tip of the iceberg is the macros, the workouts, all that kind of stuff, the tactical things that are going to get you to your results. But if you don't have the mindset in alignment with it, if you don't have the discipline, the habit building, the persistence, the hustle, the focus, understanding that you're going to fail, taking risks, patience, all that kind of stuff, it's going to be an upward battle to the longevity of the results you want to have. It's going to be an upward battle to maintaining the results that you want, not just having a success in three months or six months or one year here. It's like, okay, how can I maintain? I'm on year seven. Am I still working towards specific aspects of my body? Yes, a hundred percent. But now I have to maintain the things that I've worked for. So it's that type of mindset that you guys need to learn to develop.

And all of these things that I said, hustle, focus, persistence, discipline, patience, they're perishable things. I've talked about this before, the perishable skill sets. So you have to constantly be practicing them and working on them every single day. And that's the bottom of the iceberg, like I said.

Now, I've talked about goals before. I talked about the Atomic Habits book. A lot of you guys have read that book. So what I want to bring to the table again tonight is not really focusing on the goals. So here's a little twist. You guys know from that book, he mentions to focus on the systems instead, right? If you have a goal weight inside of the gym, if you have a goal weight that you want to accomplish, you may hit it, but you also may not, right? Some of you guys think, I want to lose 20 pounds, or I want to get to this goal weight, but the scale isn't always the biggest indicator of your success. You guys know that I've preached that. And that number may not always reflect the number you want to see, because on top of that, you're building muscle, and muscle is more dense. So you guys have these kinds of goals in your minds, but I want you to know that the results that you have very little have to do with your goals, and they have to do with every type of system that you're putting into play along your journey.

And what I mean by the systems is tracking your macros consistently, weekly, drinking your water, getting enough sleep, prioritizing your sleep, working out, all of those things, right? Your goal, when you come into VIP, when you come into WarriorBabe, might be to lose fat and to build muscle. Awesome. Cool. Those are great goals, but the systems to get you to that goal are the macros, being consistent, being patient, having discipline. It's not necessarily relying on motivation, because that's not going to be there all the time. It's having the discipline to show up no matter what. It's drinking your water on a daily basis, getting enough sleep, hitting your workouts on a weekly basis. So great. Awesome. I love that you guys have those goals, but what do your systems look like, right? If you want better results, forget about the goals and focus on your systems instead.

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So many problems arise when you spend too much time thinking about the goals, right? I've said this before, you want to detach yourself from that end point, because if you're so wrapped up in the goal that you're striving for, you're only going to be focused on that. You're going to be absorbed by it, and you're not going to be paying attention to, okay, these daily little things that I'm doing, these small little things, are going to compound over time, and they're going to get you to that end result. They're going to get you to that goal. But if you're so absorbed by it, it's going to run the show, rather than you focusing on, okay, what do I need to do just today to get me to that end goal? What do I need to do tomorrow? What do I need to do this week that I can apply next week, and the following week?

Everyone's thinking about their goals too much and not spending enough time designing and getting better at those systems. Even so much as taking a step back and planning ahead. I know myself and the coaches have spoken to this: if you're somebody who's tracking your macros as you go throughout the day, you're setting yourself up for failure, because you're going to get to the end of the day and be like, oh man. I see a couple of head nods. I know I'm probably speaking to a couple of you guys on here, because you're getting to the end of the day and you're like, man, I have 20 more grams of protein to hit, I have 50 grams of carbs, and I have 30 grams of fat. What the heck am I going to do? And then you end up macro hoarding. And you guys know how I feel about macro hoarding. It's going to be the next documentary on Netflix. We don't want to macro hoard. You're going to feel like shit, you're not going to be able to sleep, and you just don't want to do that.

So even something like that is a habit. You want to plan the night before. You want to build that into your habit-stacking methods, and you want to follow through on doing that. And then, as I've talked about before, as you get more advanced in tracking macros, like myself and some veterans on here, you can literally go without tracking for half of your day, pull back for a second and be like, okay, I need to log into MyFitnessPal and track what I've eaten so far so that I know how much I can eat for the rest of the day, or what I can do that's going to hit my macros. There are different levels of your habits, but the first thing to go after is building a habit of getting your tracking done the night before, or even the morning of, before you start the day, and making sure all your meals are together.

And meal prepping is a basic weekly habit. If you like to spend one time on a Sunday or a Saturday making time to meal prep ahead of time, or if you like to do it two days a week, whatever it may be, do what's going to work best for your schedule. These are the systems that I'm talking about. A system can be so much as opening up your calendar on a Sunday, looking at it and saying, okay, what days and what times am I going to work out this week? Because those days and times change every single week for me, but I know on these days I'm going to be able to dedicate this block of time to getting my workout in regardless of anything that comes up. It's going to happen no matter what. It's a standard to show up, right? That's a system. Even filling up your water bottle the night before, your gallon water bottle, whatever you guys drink out of, that's a system that's getting you to drink that water tomorrow, right?

So what do you have to do system-wise that's going to get you to those results? Because the results very little have to do with your goals. They have everything to do with how you're showing up every minute, every hour, every day for those goals that you want to accomplish.

So I want you to know, being inside this program, and also from the book Atomic Habits, that winners and losers have the same goals. Successful and unsuccessful people share the same goals. You and I have the same goals. Cheryl, Brandy, Lisa, Laura, you guys have the same goals. But some people inside this program may drop out and may not continue on, and they have those same goals. So a goal can't be what differentiates winners from losers. You guys all have the same goals, right? Some people may not show up 110%, but they say they have the same goal as you do. It's the systems that you specifically implement for yourself that are going to be why the winners win and why the losers don't, right? The winners are the ones doing the same continuous things over and over again, with small improvements to tracking, small improvements to consistency, small improvements to drinking more water.

I don't mean to be so blunt, but this is also a point from the book. Winners and losers have the same goals, but the losers aren't the ones that are tracking consistently. They're not the ones spending the day before making sure that their macros are in alignment and then following through with hitting all of their macros for the day. They have the same goals as somebody else here in this program, but they're not showing up in the same way, right? So don't let the goals be what differentiates you, the winners from the losers, because you guys have the same ones. It comes down to what the winners are doing in their systems that's getting them to win, right? And how can you get on that same track as all of the winners that have accomplished their goals? All you have to do is do what they're doing and apply it for yourself, instead of coming up with excuses as to why I'm not tracking, or why I'm not hitting my macros, or why I'm not getting enough sleep, or why I'm not drinking my water, all of those systems that I've already mentioned, right?

It even comes down to the self-talk. Macros, water, all of this is surface-level stuff, but how are you talking to yourself on a daily basis? Winners say, I got this. Winners are not allowing excuses to run the show. They're in the driver's seat. Excuses are in the back seat, and they're driving the car to the gym to get the workout done, right? They're not the ones saying time is in the way. They're the ones that are showing up. They're the ones that are doing it, right? So make sure that your systems are in alignment with how those people are getting the results. What are they doing? They're being consistent. They're showing up. They're drinking their water. They're getting their sleep. They're saying I can do this instead of I can't do this, right?

And also understand that achieving a goal is only a momentary change. If you have a goal-focused mindset, that's only a momentary change. So you may not be happy with where your body is, where you're at, and you find a new plan, you find a new program, you get this energy, you dive right into it, but that's all in the moment, right? But if you maintain the same habits of inconsistency, if you maintain the same habits of eating badly or not eating enough or not tracking, and you're fearing carbs, the same habits that got you to that unhappy situation that brought you here to begin with, you'll soon be unhappy again. So you're left chasing these same outcomes because you never changed the system behind it. Does that make sense?

So many people think that you have to change the result, but results aren't the problem here, you guys. What really needs to change are the systems that cause the results, right? If somebody is unhappy with their body, mainly it's because they're not eating right. They're not eating enough. They don't have to change their body. They have to change their eating habits. They have to change the consistency of how they're eating. They have to change the way that they're working out. It's not the results. It's the system. Does that make sense? When you solve problems at a results level, you only solve them temporarily. In order to improve for the long haul, to improve for good, you need to solve the problems at the systems level.

So achieving a goal, whether it be 20 pounds or whatever you want to do, changing your body composition, that's why people in programs, right, they get in, they do what the diet tells them to do, they focus on the end goal, then they forget all the habits that got them to that goal, and then bam, they're back to freaking square one, right? Because they only focused on the end result and that goal, and they didn't focus on the systems. Or maybe they did focus on the systems, but they didn't learn to maintain them. They didn't learn to turn them into longevity. They didn't learn how to adapt and adopt those habits into their lifestyle. Or, now my brain's just spiraling, that program was just not even sustainable or realistic, like keto or something like that. That's another ball game for another time, but you know what I mean? So you want to focus on healthy longevity habits, the systems that will get you to that end result.

Another thing too, guys: goals freaking restrict your happiness big time. I've personally experienced this before, and I know so many of you guys have too. How many of you guys have thought, once I reach this goal, I'm going to be happy? Once I drop these 20 pounds, I'll be so happy. Once I look a certain way, I'm going to be happy. Once I have my dream body, I can be happy. Once I lose 50 pounds, I can be happy, right? We've all been there. With that goal mentality, you're putting your happiness off until you reach that goal. So goals create an either-or conflict. You either achieve it and you're successful, or you fail and you're disappointed. It's an either-or.

And it's unlikely that the actual path you're on through your entire journey will ever match the exact process you had in mind when you set out. I know we can all speak to that. We're in VIP. We're in WarriorBabe. I thought that I would see results in two weeks. What the heck is going on? I want to get to this goal in X amount of time. We've all been there. And it's unlikely that the path you imagine in your brain is going to go exactly as you think it's going to go. That's because you're so focused, again, on the goal instead of, okay, what do I just need to do today? That's where you want to develop the systems-first mentality instead of the goals-first mentality.

When you fall in love with your process, you guys, when you fall in love with your journey rather than the product, the goal that you're trying to go for, you don't have to wait to give yourself permission to be happy. If everybody right now can just say, you know what? I am so happy that I get to do this on a daily basis. I get to show up for myself. I get to eat healthy. I get to work out. I freaking love this. I love my body where I'm at. I'm going to love it even more when I reach where I want to get to. I don't care how long it takes. I'm here for the journey. I'm here for the ride. I'm here for the lifestyle. If you all can accept that right now, you don't have to wait to give yourself permission to be happy. You're already happy.

Goals are also at odds with long-term progress, which is what we're trying to establish here. The goal-oriented mindset, you guys, creates that yo-yo effect. Think about it from this concept, and I think this is what they shared in the book: runners who work hard for months, and then as soon as they cross that finish line, they stop training, right? Or someone who follows a diet for so long, and then as soon as they reach their goal, they stop eating that way. Or the six-week diets online, and then the results stop, right? The goal is no longer there to motivate them.

Like I said when I opened up this call, I'm seven years in, and I'm learning I have to maintain the things that I've worked for. So that's long-term. That's longevity. That's, this is my lifestyle, right? And goals kind of conflict with that, because if you're like, I just need to get here, well, then you're like a marathon runner who's just focused on the run, and then they cross the finish line and they stop running. They stop training. They stop working for it, right? The goal is no longer there to motivate them. The diet is no longer there to motivate them. This is why many people go back to all of the old habits. Instead of focusing on what got them to the goal, they revert back to what they were doing before, and that's why they end up in the same place.

And the purpose of setting goals, you guys, is to win the game. That's it. The purpose of setting goals is to win the freaking game. But the purpose of building these systems, the purpose of getting the consistency down, the purpose of loving your journey, the purpose of establishing a schedule for your routine every day, is to continue playing the game. So a goal is like, cool, we're going to the World Series. That's a goal. Let's go.

Think about it like that. A perfect example is Tom Brady. Why do you think he's freaking a GOAT in football? I'm sorry if any of you guys are not Tom Brady fans, but he is an amazing athlete. This is longevity. This is his life, right? That's what he does. He's not focused on just one Super Bowl. He's focused on winning them all, and he's truly proven that, right? He's focused on continuing to play the game, not just winning the game. And that's what we're here to do too. The purpose of setting goals is to win, and the purpose of building systems is so you guys can continue playing. So you guys can maintain the results that you want, so that you can be seven years in and say, cool, I worked so hard for the first three to four years. I'm not just going to revert back to what I was doing before those four years. That's not who you are anymore. You've created a whole new life for yourself and whole new habits. So how can I continue playing the game? It's putting the systems that you used for the last four years into play even more.

So again, let's focus on developing our systems, building our systems. I'm not saying goals are not good to have. You can have them, just detach away from them if they're owning you, if they have you asking, why am I not getting here faster? Then they're controlling you, instead of you being in control. You can do all of that, but you have to do it with the systems. Just worry about, hey, did I show up today? If you can genuinely answer that question with a hell yeah at the end of the day, and you keep doing that, it's all going to compound. You're going to end up where you want to be with your goal in however many months, whatever time it takes you to get there, right?

So fall in love with the process rather than the end goal, and allow yourself to enjoy it every freaking day, right now. Just allow that permission to sink in, and allow yourself to be happy right now, rather than asking, when am I going to get there? When can it happen? How fast are the results going to happen? Let it go. Just make sure that you're showing up every day, you're doing what your coach is telling you to do, you're putting in the work, and you're getting it done. It's going to happen.

Real quick, the only ask I could ever have of you guys is to help spread the word so we can help more women lose body fat, build muscle, reach their goals, and feel insanely confident. And the only way we can do that is if you rate, review, and share this podcast. So the single thing I ask you to do is leave a review. It will take you 10 seconds, and it will mean the absolute world to me and may change the world of someone else.