Substance vs System

When navigating life, we figure out what we desire, what we want.  This could be anything from having a family to being rich.  These are examples of goals, and to achieve a goal, there are key two distinctions you must understand. 

These two pieces are called substance and system. A system represents the steps you’re currently taking to achieve your goals.  If your goal is to be rich and you are poor, you are implementing a failing system, and you need to change your system to succeed.  Substance is something that indicates that you have achieved that goal.  If you want to be rich, money is the substance, and your system is what you do with the money to become rich.  It is crucial that you build the system before you receive the substance and I'll explain why.

Say your goal is to be rich.  You are currently poor (or not financially independent) which means that in some way shape or form, the system you’re currently using is failing.  Now say that you win the lottery.   You will feel in the moment as if your prayers were answered, and you have achieved your goal.

Do you know what often happens to people after they win the lottery?

They end up blowing it all and eventually going back to being broke.  This is because they were given the substance within a failing system.  If you receive the substance before you build a winning system, then things will eventually fall through.

Now let’s say another person also has a dream to get rich.  This person focuses on the system and they learn about finance, stocks, investments, and so forth.  This person is building a winning system without the substance, and as a result they will know how to properly use the substance to achieve their goal when they are able to obtain it.  Say this person now also wins the lottery.  Now they have the substance of money with a winning system, and through investments as well as their knowledge obtained through research, they will eventually succeed at their goal. 

If you focus on building the system before you are given the substance, you will be able to maximize the substance and use it to sustain your achievement.  If you focus on the substance, you will never change your failing system and in the end, things will not go the way you wanted and you will not achieve your goals.