As we wrap up the year 02024, I have some brief thoughts that will (hopefully) benefit anyone who wants to enter the world of aerospace and aviation in their years ahead. These thoughts are about setting your systems, not goals, for 02025.

In case you are wondering why I wrote the year with 5 digits, it is to provide a greater sense of awe and perspective for our incredible point in time in the trajectory of humanity. This convention is promoted by The Long Now Foundation, which I encourage you to be familiar with.

Back to the day – and year – at hand.

All good engineers, scientists, technologists, and creators are SYSTEMS THINKERS.

We live in a world of systems. Complex systems, in fact. This must be appreciated and understood if you are going to be successful in it.

“Design is destiny.” — Scott Adams

There are probably many people who have said that through the ages. But one person who continues to say it is Scott Adams, the creator of the Dilbert comic. He has done many other things besides that and since that…

One of those contributions, perhaps on par with the insightfulness and courage that the Dilbert cartoon has provided over the decades, is creating one of the top career advice and career planning books ever made: How to Fail At Almost Everything and Still Win Big.

I will give you one of the powerful pieces of advice from that book to help your next year be transformational. If you want to learn more about the book, please see this blog post I wrote about the book in 2018. It is still just as powerful and relevant! If you haven’t benefitted from this book’s advice for the past 6 years, don’t let another year slip by.

Choose systems over goals

It’s most natural to think about specific goals we want for ourselves or those we care about in the upcoming year.

Go ahead and get those outcomes and visions crystallized in your mind. Do it now.

What will be different in your life? How will YOU be a different person? How will your life be changed?

Get that vision as clear and as compelling as you can. So much so that you can see, feel, and taste it.

Then comes the trickier yet more clever step:

Reverse engineer your future outcomes into your daily life

If that vision is more likely to become reality, what are the daily habits, the changes to your environment and surroundings, and the normal procedures you can do to make that outcome a natural occurance?

These are simple questions with very complex and profound implications.

When you read my book, How To Be a Rocket Scientist, you will find more examples of using systems over goals. Almost all of my 10 tips apply this strategy of setting your systems, not goals, for 02025.

Redesign your life for 02025

Use this opportunity of a new year to redesign your life. Or re-engineer it, if you are more of an engineering type of person.

I’ve given you this blog post and two books to help you do it. I’m sure there can be more resources to help.

Want a podcast? A worksheet? A video? A group of people to help you out?

If you want or need something else, you can ask here. Or make the decision to seek it out.

“The world belongs to those who persevere.” — Nathaniel Branden

That is one of my all-time favorite quotes. From a man who I owe a huge amount of debt to for helping me understand the world and myself. Someone else I highly recommend as a source for redesigning your systems for operating in the world.

To riff on that, I say to you, the world belongs to those who build systems over goals.

Here’s to the world you build in 02025. Go forth to prosper, achieve, and enjoy!