Niels V. van den Bergh recently shared something that caught my attention: "Stop optimizing your goals. It is a waste of time if you have not audited your environment first." He followed it with a simple prompt: open your calendar, look at the last 14 days, and ask whether you are building infrastructure with peers or stuck in a silo of "yeah but" excuses.

That framing is sharp because it attacks the hidden bottleneck most of us refuse to measure. We set goals, tweak routines, buy planners, install apps, and still feel like we are pushing a boulder uphill. As Niels points out, the problem is often not the goal. It is the system the goal is trying to run inside.

"Because your life runs on inputs. Inputs become habits. Habits become outcomes."

In other words: if your inputs are noisy, cynical, and distracting, your outcomes will be too, no matter how perfectly worded your goals are.

Stop polishing the dashboard, trace the requests

Niels compares this to debugging a production system: when latency spikes, you do not blame the dashboard. You trace requests, check logs, and find the noisy dependency. I love this analogy because it turns self improvement into something concrete.

When you are behind on a project, exhausted, or stuck in procrastination, the temptation is to optimize the visible layer:

Rewrite the goal to make it "smarter"
Add another productivity tool
Create a more complex plan
Decide you need more motivation

But those are dashboards. The real causes usually live upstream in your inputs: who you talk to, what you consume, and what your environment quietly rewards.

A noisy dependency in your life might be:

A group chat that spikes anxiety five times a day
A colleague who turns every solution into a debate about why it will not work
An endless stream of outrage content that trains your brain to scan for threats
A calendar with no protected focus time, only reactive meetings

If you do not audit those dependencies, optimizing the goal is like optimizing code while your database is on fire.

The three input categories that shape your outcomes

Niels calls out two big input types directly: people and content. I would add a third that sits between them: structure.

1) People: energy multipliers vs energy leaks

Niels puts it plainly: "Some people add energy, clarity, and standards. Some people quietly drain you with drama, cynicism, and 'yeah but...' excuses." The key word is quietly. Energy leaks rarely announce themselves as villains. They show up as "just checking in" calls, subtle negativity, constant context switching, or endless critique with no ownership.

A useful distinction:

Builders help you move from idea to action. They ask, "What is the next step?"
Commentators keep you in analysis. They ask, "But what if it fails?"

Commentary has a place, but if most of your interactions are commentary, your week becomes a loop of hesitation.

2) Content: what you watch trains what you notice

Niels highlights the sneaky part: content. "If you consume outrage all day, you will think the world is on fire. If you consume builders, you will start building." That is not motivational fluff. It is attentional conditioning.

Your brain learns patterns from repetition. If your feed trains you to react to conflict, you will carry that posture into your work: more hot takes, more suspicion, less creation. If your feed trains you to ship, you start seeing opportunities to ship.

A practical test is the one Niels suggests:

What content makes you take action within 24 hours?
What content makes you doomscroll and delay?

You do not need to quit the internet. You need to stop pretending every input is neutral.

3) Structure: the calendar is your real operating system

Niels tells you to open your calendar for the last 14 days. That is the audit most people avoid because it is honest. Your calendar reveals:

Whether you create or only react
Whether you have time to think or only time to respond
Whether you invest in relationships that build momentum

If your calendar is 80 percent meetings, your goal to "do deep work" is not a goal problem. It is an environment problem.

A weekly input audit you can actually run

Niels proposes a weekly input audit. I would keep it lightweight, like a Sunday reset or a Friday shutdown. The point is not to become obsessive. The point is to stop negotiating with inputs that clearly produce bad outputs.

Here is a simple 20 minute version.

Step 1: Pull the evidence (10 minutes)

Look at:

Your calendar (last 7 to 14 days)
Your screen time or app usage
The last 10 pieces of content you consumed (articles, videos, podcasts, social)
Your top message threads

Do not judge yet. Just collect.

Step 2: Label inputs as sharpener, neutral, or drainer (5 minutes)

For each major input, ask:

Did this leave me sharper after the interaction?
Did it create clarity and standards?
Did it push me toward action?

If the answer is consistently no, call it what it is: a drainer.

Step 3: Decide one subtraction and one replacement (5 minutes)

This is where most audits fail. People list problems and change nothing.

Pick one input to remove or reduce this week:

A person you meet out of obligation
A group chat that spikes stress
A content feed that leads to doomscrolling

Then pick a replacement that matches the outcome you want:

Replace the draining call with a builder check in
Replace the outrage feed with a newsletter from practitioners
Replace late night scrolling with a 20 minute walk and a book chapter

The replacement matters because nature hates a vacuum, and so does your schedule.

Support starts you, accountability ships you

One of Niels most useful lines is about enterprise rollouts: "Support gets you started. Accountability gets you to production. The combo is the only way to scale." This applies to personal goals almost perfectly.

Support looks like:

Encouragement
Advice
Resources
Emotional reinforcement

Accountability looks like:

Deadlines
Clear ownership
Review loops
Consequences (even small ones)

If you only have support, you feel good but drift. If you only have accountability, you may ship, but you can burn out. The combination creates sustainable execution.

A practical way to implement this:

One builder peer you talk to weekly (support)
One visible commitment you report weekly (accountability)

That can be as simple as a Friday message: what you shipped, what you learned, what you will do next.

What this changes in real life

When you shift from goal optimization to input auditing, three things happen fast:

You stop treating motivation as the scarce resource. You treat attention and environment as the scarce resources.
You become more strategic with relationships. You do not need to cut everyone off. You need to notice who consistently raises your standards and who lowers them.
You regain time. Draining inputs create follow on costs: rumination, rework, context switching, procrastination. Removing one drainer often frees up hours you did not realize you were losing.

"If you want a faster year, stop negotiating with your inputs."

That line is confrontational in the best way. It suggests that speed is not primarily a talent issue. It is an input hygiene issue.

One question to take into this week

Niels ends with a challenge: pick one input you will remove or reduce this week, and what you will replace it with. I would make it even more specific:

What is the single input that most reliably pushes you into delay?
What is the smallest replacement that would push you into action within 24 hours?

If you answer those honestly, you do not need a new goal. You need a cleaner system.

This blog post expands on a viral LinkedIn post by Niels V. van den Bergh. View the original LinkedIn post →