What goes wrong when you ignore that habit systems versus habit goals?

The most common reason fails: Interpreting systems-over-goals as permission to avoid commitment. A system without direction is just a routine. The failure is discarding goals entirely rather than subordinating them to systems — using goals to set the compass heading while relying on the system to generate daily motion.

The fix: List three goals you have set in the past two years. For each, write down what happened the week after you achieved it (or abandoned it). Then, for each goal, design a minimal system — a recurring set of behaviors, triggers, and environmental cues — that would produce progress toward that outcome indefinitely without requiring the goal itself. Compare the two: which version are you more likely to still be doing in three years?

The underlying principle is straightforward: Focus on building the system of habits not achieving a specific outcome.