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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.
Most of us know what we should do in most situations. But our behaviors often follow something else.
We go out with friends instead of preparing for the report that is due. We smoke, eat junk food, and watch too much TV, when we know those things are not good for us.
Read MoreEveryone is different. We all have varying experiences and beliefs that make us who we are. We are each unique and add value in our own way.
But this doesn’t mean that there aren’t common patterns. In fact, many of us probably see recurring behaviors by different people and see the similarity in each person’s approach.
Read MoreThe systems and habits approach to improvement relies on very small steps. We find small improvements that we can do and then we do them over and over again.
By doing this we start to slowly build new positive habits. We think through these changes to make sure they help us get where we want to go. Without this approach the habits form by default by whatever our recurring decisions happen to be.
Read MorePlenty of people set goals. We want more money, a bigger house, a better job or more time off. The focus is to gain something or achieve some specific result.
We don’t fully grasp the actions and behaviors that we will have to change in order to gain the reward that we envision. This causes us to overlook crucial elements to reaching this goal.
Read MoreWhen I was in middle school I started to play football for my school. I had never played tackle football but was raised in a family that was obsessed with football.
This put a lot of pressure on me. I wanted to succeed and be able to play at a high level to help my team, but I was unsure if I would be good enough to even compete.
Read MoreWe are constantly surrounded by and interacting with systems. On a daily basis we encounter elements of various systems and don’t spend much time thinking about them.
It usually isn’t until there is a problem that we shift our focus to be on the system. As soon as the problem surfaces we want to know how to correct the problem.
Read MoreWhen it comes to personal improvement, it may be difficult to know when to act and when to sit back and plan out your approach. If we act without adequate planning we usually find ourselves doing the wrong things.
If we plan without adequate action, we find ourselves in analysis paralysis. We can’t possibly do anything perfectly so we just keep finding fault.
Read MoreOne of the concepts of systems thinking is the idea of emergent properties. Emergent properties are effects that come from the various system components interacting.
These may go unnoticed to the person who thinks through problems linearly because they may not see the intended or unintended side effects that are produced from the system.
Read MoreIn systems thinking, feedback loops are important to understand how a certain aspect of the system functions. There are several types of feedback loops and several situations where they are present.
In our personal improvement journey we can find ways to utilize feedback loops to help us reach a goal. One way is to create a new habit.
Read MoreNick Saban is one of the greatest college football coaches of all time. His Alabama teams seem to compete for National Championships year in and year out. His winning teams set the standard for college football excellence.
Yet Saban is much less focused on winning than you might think. Obviously winning is important. But, in 1998 he changed his focus from being on the outcome (i.e. winning) to being on the process.
Read MoreThere is a structure that I often see in books, speeches and other resources. It usually goes something like this…
What if I told you that I know the secret to winning the lottery? I know the one thing that every single lottery winner has done that has helped him win the lottery. It doesn’t matter how superstitious you are because this one thing is so powerful nobody will ever win without doing it.
Read MoreSystems thinking has great benefits for the business person or the individual trying to improve something about themselves. But the benefits of systems thinking provide even greater benefit that doesn’t often get talked about.
The truth is that being able to better understand the world around us can help us avoid overreacting to something. In linear thinking when something happens, we quickly search for what led to it and what will be the consequences, often causing us to overreact. In systems thinking, we can see the full system, and can understand the true scope of this particular situation better, allowing us to remain calm as we determine what to do next.
Read MoreSometimes in conversations with others, I see examples where people know what they should do but do something different. We all experience this from time to time.
If we want to get healthy we need to exercise more and eat healthier foods and lower caloric intake. This is common sense, most would say. But it isn’t common behavior.
Read MoreSince it is the beginning of the year we can start to see all sorts of signs that the majority of people want to change and improve their lives. They set New Years resolutions and promise that this year will be the year they see the results they crave.
Results are usually the measuring stick that we all use. If we start working out to lose weight we want to see the number on the scale decrease over time. We don’t want to set out to lose weight and gain weight instead.
Read MoreI previously worked with a fairly large corporation. The company had been around over 70 years and built a solid business with thousands of employees.
Because of the fact that the business was older and it was a large corporation, there were constant calls for change. Everywhere people would claim we couldn’t keep working this way. They would argue that the processes and systems were outdated.
Read MoreSystems are all around us. We all interact with too many systems to count on a daily basis. There are traffic systems in place while we drive to work, work rules that makeup processes and systems, and we interact with others using habits and systematic responses.
With all of the various systems around us, in can be easy to forget how many systems we have control over. These can be looked at as habits, natural tendencies, our daily routines and behaviors etc. Instead of focusing on systems we control we only notice systems outside of our control.
Read MoreThere are many ways to design systems and habits to improve an area of your life. I have worked through many different system designs and habit changes and found that the options are numerous.
With all of those options it can be hard to get started. I always recommend starting slowly (such using the technique setting the minimum). But that still might not be enough information to really understand how to do this.
Read MorePeople have been using systems thinking for decades. While Lao Tzu certainly had no understanding of any formal systems thinking 2,500 years ago when he wrote the Tao Te Ching, his work exemplifies many systems thinking principles.
Today you can easily find a book that explains systems thinking in a very technical manner. You can study about feedback loops and mental models all day to get more clarity around elements that exist within a system.
Read MoreDr. Wayne Dyer once said, “Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.”
I love that quote. Not just because it is insightful but also because I have gone through several transformations of the way I think and each time I experienced this very intimately.
Read MoreThis time of year, everyone seems to be talking about goals and resolutions. Change is in the air. Motivation is up and we start to evaluate what we want to improve in the next few months.
While this can be a good time to boost our self-improvement, it can also form a cycle of start and failure. Many of the goals we set are uncomfortable so we wait until January to attack them.
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