Scott Adams talked about systems vs. goals in his book How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big.  It's the idea that having goals sets you up for failure, since you'll typically only perform a task until your goal is met.  After that, you won't perform the task anymore, and you'll likely fall back into old patterns.  So it's essentially about forming positive habits, and how a system (or belief system) will help you continue a positive habit, while a goal will ensure that you'll succeed and then promptly fail. 

I've realized I view exercise as a system.  This is at least partly because viewing it as a goal is too disappointing for me.  If my goal with exercise is to gain muscle or run long distances, I get easily discouraged when these goals aren't achieved in a reasonable amount of time, whether because I'm not investing enough time or effort, or because my genetics preclude me from being a muscular or athletic human.  Either way, not achieving goals is unfortunately a great reason to stop trying.  When I instead view exercise as a system to achieve physical and mental health, it doesn't really matter how much muscle I don't gain or how far I don't run.  As long as it counts as exercise, it's working.  It's basically just semantics:  Instead of a specific short-term goal, it's a nebulous long-term goal. 

It's been the same with school and work.  I never really had any concrete goals, such as how well I wanted to do on a test, or what job I wanted in five years.  My nebulous long-term goal is to spend copious amounts of time relaxing on a warm beach.  So my system has been to do well enough in school to get a good job that will pay me enough to achieve that goal.  The details don't really matter. #psychology