GPS

I used to procrastinate a lot.

That’s nothing unusual-

but I enjoyed a weird, specific type of procrastination.

After I quit most bad habits:

• 18+ stuff

• video games

• useless entertainment

My productivity went through the roof.

At least that’s what I thought.

In reality?

I still didn’t get a lot done.

I loved to overthink things.

Not in an anxiety-ridden, stressed and panicky way.

I just loved to make plans.

To strategize everything I was doing.

Trying to find the most optimal way of reaching my goals.

That was my ultimate form of procrastination:

Thinking about the action, about executing to perfection.

… Aaaaaand never actually acting on my “perfect” plans.

I’d try.

But the moment things did not go exactly to plan, I’d switch it, start my “overplanning” phase again, and obsess over what I could do even better.

Until I listened to an Ali Abdaal interview.

And he mentioned a simple blueprint to achieve goals.

It was so stupidly simple I couldn’t imagine nobody ever thought of it before:

GPS.

Goals, Plans, Systems.

And that’s all it took.

All my planning, overthinking, and mental energy waste went out of the window.

At least to a large degree.

So here is how it works.

Goals, Plans & Systems

The idea is very simple:

You can break down and find a route directly toward your goal(s) with this blueprint.

Doesn’t matter which kind of goal it is.

With the correct setting of goals, the right formulation of plans and the invention of working systems, you can reach any goal you have.

For the sake of simplicity and because I love it, I’ll use the gym as an example here.

Goals

I used to set goals wrong.

What happens when you set goals the wrong way?

You can’t achieve them.

Take a look at the following “goal”:

“I’ll be financially free”

Well done, you spelled out a desire everybody on this planet has.

This isn’t a goal.

This is a vague dream.

There are two key functions of goals:

• very specific timeframe

• very specific desired outcome

You have to nail both of these to know where you are heading.

Example

I want to “get jacked”.

That’s the same as saying “I want to be financially free”-

It’s a cool dream, but doesn’t have any substance behind it.

So instead, I’ll specify:

• 10% body fat

• a lot of muscle

• healthy and athletic

To be fair, there’s not that much to specify in this example-

but you get the point.

Realistically speaking, I’ll need a few years to achieve my dream physique.

I still need to come up with a 1-year target though.

→ Where do I (realistically) want myself to be in 1 year?

The more detailed you can be, the better:

(for reference, I’m around 78.5kg right now, almost peak bulk, and have been training for ~20 months)

→ I want to be at ~77kg at around 12% bf, and have gained X amount of lean muscle mass in exactly 1 year from now.

This is made up on the spot-

but it’s honestly not too bad of a goal, right?

Plans

Setting the right goal is the first step, but not that hard.

Coming up with great plans is a bit trickier.

But Ali mentioned something along the lines of:

“You don’t need more than 3-5 action steps to achieve your goal”

That’s it.

3-5 action steps.

You could call them “lever-moving tasks”.

The idea is simple:

You repeat these 3-5 action steps on a daily or weekly basis, literally until you reach your goal.

And they will have a higher ROI than any other task you can think of.

Example

What are the 3-5 action steps I need to do to hit my gym goal?

If you think about it, they’re pretty simple:

• hit the gym daily

• do cardio 3x a week

• hit my calorie goal daily

I don’t need to do much more.

Of course, you can break these action steps down into more detail.

→ Hit the gym:

• do a 4-part split

• select the exercises you like the most

• make sure to hit every muscle a few sets a week

Honestly though?

If people just showed up to the gym, did some form of cardio sometimes and hit the calorie goal some calculator told them to, they’d achieve 80% of the results they wanted.

You don’t have to overcomplicate everything, especially not before you start.

You’ll learn more and refine your plans as you go-

but the core 3-5 action steps?

They’ll never change, so just hit the repeat button.

Systems

What exactly are systems?

In short, they are habits, routines and ways to ensure you stick to the 3-5 action steps you planned out.

Systems reduce mental friction.

They make it easier to stay disciplined, manage your time and take away a lot of the day-to-day decision fatigue and mental overwhelm.

Systems are great-

but they’re not quite as easy to build.

I can tell you what plans you have to follow to build your dream body.

But systems have to be built by yourself as only you can customize your systems in ways that work best for you.

Example

How do I make going to the gym every day as simple and frictionless as possible?

I can try and make it an easy-to-follow habit:

• go to the gym at the same time every single day

• I can pack my gym bag in advance

• I can have a pre-gym routine

Same goes for hitting my calorie goal.

I could meal prep my entire week so I reduce friction in all the days to come.

In any case, systems are there to ensure you stick to your main 3-5 action plans.

Whatever it takes.

GPS is a brilliant system, but it’s still not perfect.

I like using it for “lesser goals” that I face monthly for example.

I recently used it for a university project I didn’t care too much about, and 30 minutes of applying this system reduced the anxiety cost almost to 0.

Now I had a route to finish this project with minimal effort, and I didn’t have to overthink hours on it.

For major goals, like for example “getting jacked” or “becoming financially free”, this system doesn’t do it for me-

I do like going into a lot more detail.

But it never hurt me to run my goals through it.

I often realize I’ll do too many of the wrong things and too little of the important stuff.

If you want to try GPS, follow these steps:

I hope you enjoyed this Newsletter.

See you soon,

~ Henri

PS: The doors to my 1:1 Coaching Program “Focus” are open.

If this sounds familiar:

• you constantly procrastinate

• you have difficulties to concentrate

• you want to work less but get more done

Then reply to this email with “Focus” or send me a DM on X for more info.

(nothing binding of course- and I don’t bite:))