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Using systems and habits to improve your life is a proven method to succeed. It requires seeing the work as a system and then adjusting your thoughts and behaviors to be able to take advantage of your opportunities in life.
Looking at things systematically and working to improve slowly over time by focusing on changing habits isn’t a new concept. But too often people confuse systems and habits with rigidity.
But the systems and habits approach to improvement doesn’t mean rigid thinking. It doesn’t mean creativity is absent. It doesn’t result in an inflexible model that ignores realities.
Read MoreWhen I was about 23 years old I started to read books that inspired and motivated me to take control of my life. I started to be willing to take risks and I would disregard the opinions of others.
It was a very important time in my life. For years I felt constrained and confined to moving in the direction that others thought was best for me. This was my way of breaking free from this limiting and hopeless mindset.
Read MoreThe Greek historian, Plutarch, once said, “Character is a long-standing habit.”
But too often we associate character with something else. We think that our character isn’t defined by our routines and habits but by our bold action.
Read MoreThere is a great quote by Ann Landers. She said, “Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don’t recognize them.”
I love this quote. Not just because it emphasizes the hard work element of success but because we can all relate.
Read MoreThe other day I heard a quote that I have never heard before. It was a quote by Bill Bradley who was a hall of fame basketball player, a Rhodes scholar, and a U.S. Senator. With such a successful resume and covering such a wide range of areas, it is easy to see that Bradley understands how to succeed.
The quote that I heard from Bradley was, “Ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle you arrive in.”
Read MoreWhen a team has tremendous success, we all want to know how they did it. How did they succeed despite the odds being stacked against them? How did they overcome adversity and defeat others who wanted to win just as much?
Many times the answer is talent, preparation, or grit. But too often while searching for some magic recipe, we overlook reality. The reality is just that they executed better than anyone else.
Read MoreThe world seems to be getting more and more complex all the time. Many of us think of a simpler time when there wasn’t as much choice, wasn’t as much to do, and wasn’t as much to manage every day.
In many cases the answer is to simplify. We have to realize when we add unnecessary complication to something. But often this isn’t enough. We also have to be able to adapt to changing situations and growing complexity that is out of our hands.
Read MoreWe all know someone who is always busy, yet doesn’t seem to get things done. He or she works and works but doesn’t seem to get ahead.
Or maybe we feel like that at times. There is so much to do that we just put our head down and work and hope we get through it. But rushing through tasks doesn’t help us get ahead unless we are also addressing the systems and habits around getting things done.
Read MoreTeam building is a popular topic for seminars and conferences. Great leaders want to keep growing their ability to lead and build great teams. Inexperienced leaders look for a way to get better.
I have been fortunate to attend many of these events and I have also run some myself. One of the universal criticisms from attendees is that the ideas and motivation seem to fizzle out over time. They leave motivated but then find themselves back into their normal routine without lasting improvement.
Read MoreEveryone wants to be perfect. We all want the world to fit into our idea of perfection. This causes us to view the world in a very biased way and makes it challenging to take action when things are less than perfect.
But in the real world this idea of perfection doesn’t exist. There will always be multiple variables and layers of complexity. There will be connectedness to other elements and people and we have to stop trying to define perfect in the traditional way.
Read MoreIn order to accomplish a goal we have to take action. We have to understand the work involved and make a consistent effort towards that goal.
Yet time and time again we miss that crucial part. We get caught up in the results we hope to achieve.
Read MoreI was reading an article the other day that talked about leadership. It said that leadership is a set of principles. It argued that if we just know these, then we would be instantly transformed into a great leader.
But this is terribly misleading and incredibly irresponsible advice. It certainly fits with the mindset that says we can sit around and do nothing and success and riches are just something that will be handed to us because we somehow deserve it.
Read MoreStriving to achieve a goal relies on addressing the underlying aspects of our lives. We have to be aware of, and improve, the systems and habits that drive our behaviors, our thoughts and our decisions.
When evaluating systems and habits, I use three criteria. First I want to see if a system is simple. This doesn’t mean there isn’t any complexity but it does mean that it is not unnecessarily overcomplicated. Are the aspects of the system as simple as possible? Without simplicity, it is extremely difficult for a system to be effective.
Read MoreTeam building is something most of us are familiar with. We tend to think of some group exercise or training to discover our strengths and then working together collaboratively to solve problems.
But most of us don’t look at team building systematically. We might attend a training session or read a book about leadership but we have a difficult time going from lesson to implementation.
Read MoreYesterday I decided to take advantage of the nice spring weather we are having and I took a walk on my lunch break. Being in downtown Cleveland, there are a lot of places to walk to and see and it makes for a relaxing break from work.
As I was walking down E 9th street I saw a man walking with a dog. I see quite a few dogs downtown on my walks but I noticed that this was a working dog. The man was blind and the dog was helping to guide him around the city.
Read MoreWhen we want to improve in an area or reach a specific goal we have to set goals based on the process of reaching that goal. In other words, we don’t just pick a random number to shoot for; we investigate what it will take to make progress and then work to implement small systematic steps to get there.
There are various ways to look at systems. In product development it can be common to look at interdependent or integrated systems and contrast that with modular systems.
Read MoreMy natural tendency when I start to slack off on my goals is to feel guilty. I used to use this to try and motivate me to get back on track.
I assumed that feeling guilty would push me towards my goals and that I needed this extra motivation if I was going to stick with it enough to achieve whatever metric I set.
Read MoreOne of the advantages of taking the slow, systematic approach towards improvement is that it allows for flexibility. By utilizing the principles of systems and habits we can account for life’s natural ebbs and flows.
Flexibility is very important because no matter how much planning we do, there will be things that change. Unexpected obstacles and competing priorities make it difficult if we have too rigid of an approach.
Read MoreOne of the areas of improvement that can easily derail my efforts is to spend too much time judging my progress. Because we tend to set goals based on the outcome we hope to achieve, we want to have metrics and analysis to show that we are heading towards success.
The focus shifts from making slow progress towards our goals, to judging if we are getting there fast enough. The times when I have been caught up in this were times I failed. I would abandon what was working because it wasn’t working fast enough, and switch to something that I thought would work quicker but didn’t actually work at all.
Read MoreThe other day I was reading an article that talked about how startup tech companies have gone mainstream. The article pointed to these and tried to make the argument that more startups need to be able to scale to succeed.
The article used typical examples such as Facebook and Dropbox. It tried to make the argument that if we can help more companies achieve this level of success, then we can significantly improve the economy.
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