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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.
Planes have always fascinated me. I love the idea that man can create something so large and heavy, yet keep it floating through the sky.
Every day planes are flying people and objects to far away locations. Every time I have flown on a plane, I sat in amazement at what was occurring.
Read MoreI’ve worked with many people and many different organizations. I noticed that most people seem to fall on a continuum between being too rash and being too afraid to act.
Not many fell on the extremes of those two, instead most people would tend to lean more towards not taking action or more towards taking action before thinking things through.
Read MoreLife is all about choices. We all have choices that we make throughout our lives that determine where we go and who we end up becoming.
But most people that I know only pay attention to the major decisions, like getting married or having kids. They gloss over the daily decisions and the decisions not to act when there is something that they want.
Read MoreSystems are everywhere. Everything about life is made up of multiple systems. Everything we do, everything we see, and everything we are can be looked at systematically.
While this may help gain a better understanding of things, it also complicates things a bit. Now that we can see that one system might impact several other, unrelated, systems, it can be difficult to know what to do to improve.
Read MoreWe all feel trapped at times. Maybe something happened to us at work that was beyond our control but impacts us greatly. Maybe a friend said or did something hurtful to us. Maybe our health took a negative turn without any warning.
It is natural to feel as though we are shackled in our own mind. We feel like the victim and might even have proof to show that we weren’t responsible at all. We were just minding our own business when, all-of-a-sudden we are victimized.
Read MoreWe all have probably been so busy at some point in our lives that we simply try to put out as many metaphorical fires as possible. It could be at work, at home, at school, or anywhere else where problems surface and it is up to us to fix them.
I’ve worked at places where people treat any problem as a five-alarm fire. They become chaotic and stressed. They get nervous and frustrated. They scramble around trying to find the quickest, easiest way to alleviate the stress caused by the problem.
Read MoreMost people never look at their personal routines and habits in order to identify ways to improve. They may see something they want and set a goal to get it, but it is usually driven by the reward or prize at the end of a journey.
Because we tend to work backwards from what we want and then start looking at what to do to get it, we often ignore the mundane systems in our life. Instead we try to identify one or two things that we can do differently.
Read MoreI’m currently about 50 pages into a book titled Work the System – The Simple Mechanics of Making More and Working Less by Sam Carpenter. It is one of the best books that I have read in a long time!
Carpenter describes how he came to realize the systematic nature of things. He takes the reader through a change in perspective so great that it completely changed his life.
Read MoreMost people think that the things they really want in life are out of reach. They assume financial freedom, a healthy body, loving relationships, etc. only come to us in pieces. They see chaos reign.
This keeps them wishing and hoping instead of taking action to change and improve. They might be able to take a small step forward, but because they view the end result is largely due to luck or some force outside of themselves, they stay where they are.
Read MoreOur world is complex. There are many elements of life and the more we explore life the more we tend to discover.
With all of this complexity, many people start to feel that they are simply being manipulated like a pawn on a chessboard. They feel that there must be someone else in charge.
Read MoreWe all have problems. We all have stress and anxiety at times. We all experience fear.
While this are just part of a system that also includes pleasure, happiness, relaxation, fulfillment, etc. we all tend to dwell on the negative emotions from time to time.
Read MoreI used to dwell on all that I viewed was wrong in the world. I would find fault in everything. I took on a condescending attitude that said if only the world would just follow my advice; I could fix everything for everyone.
But, obviously, this was a horrible way to go through life. I didn’t know anything. I was naïve and oblivious to the real world. Luckily, I started to slowly realize how wrong I was and I realized it early in my life.
Read MoreHabits are a part of everyone’s life. We are all creatures of habit who follow patterns in our thoughts and behaviors.
While this may seem obvious, what isn’t obvious is that we have to deliberately design our habits if we want them to move us towards success and happiness.
Read MoreHave you ever set a goal and timeframe and thought that it was a foregone conclusion that you would hit all of your targets right on time but then struggled to even get traction?
I have. Many times. In fact, almost every goal I set seems much easier in my initial daydreaming than it really is. I don’t know exactly why but I feel that success will be certain.
Read MoreOur life is made up of systems. But most of the time we are so caught up in the daily ups and downs that we never pay attention to these systems.
Seeing the systems in your life isn’t absolutely necessary. We don’t have to pay any attention to them at all. But that doesn’t mean that they aren’t there and aren’t controlling aspects of your life all the time.
Read MoreWhenever goal-setting and the concept of using systems to succeed comes up, some people automatically assume that we are talking about some quick-fix “system” that instantly solves all of our problems and gives us massive amounts of money and success.
This is completely the opposite of the systems and habits approach to improvement. While systems thinking may give us a different perspective on how to improve and will likely shed light on leverage points that can make improvement more likely, it still requires hard work and diligence.
Read MorePeople like to talk about New Year’s resolutions at the beginning of each year. They set goals and think about areas of their life that they wish were different.
The logical thing is to set a goal or resolution to change something about you. Unfortunately the failure rate of New Year’s resolutions is about 80% by February. What tends to happen is that we just keep falling back to old habits and the motivation fades.
Read MoreAdjusting your habits to help you reach your goals can be a great way to succeed but too often people ignore that method to reach for the stars. “Shoot for the moon so if you miss you will still be among the stars,” they say.
So we start out with enough motivation to fill a house. We sit on our couch and talk ourselves into a dream and assume we will just breeze past adversity when it shows up. Why not, we feel the motivation now so we assume we will have it when we need it.
Read MoreWhen something bad happens, what goes through your mind? Do you start to think about the fairness or unfairness of the situation? Do you feel like a victim?
Many people, including me at times, have a natural pattern that involves looking for excuses and playing the victim. It is as if we just need a little negative to suddenly dive into a pity party.
Read MoreWhen I talk to people about their goals and aspirations, I often find that feel they just don’t know what to do. But that isn’t the case.
The more I ask about what it is that they want, they usually state that they should do this or that, but that they just can’t seem to do it enough to see any benefit.
Read More