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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.
Whenever we take on something new we tend to go through an awkward stage. I remember learning to play the guitar when I was younger. I could barely remember where my fingers were supposed to go to form the chords.
I would stumble around and take pauses between notes. It was completely un-musical. It sounded horrible. If I didn’t explain the song I was trying to play nobody would think it was a real song.
Read MoreWhen we start creating systems and processes in a business it is easy to let it become a complicated mess. There is a lot of complexity and we need to make sure the process accounts for many variables.
But as we do this, we should actively look for ways to simplify. It sounds much easier said than done, but if we keep this focus on simplicity we can cut through some of the unnecessary detail.
Read MoreWhen we set out on a journey to reach a new goal, we often spend a lot of our time envisioning what it will be like when we reach the finish line. We think about the rewards and how we will feel when we win.
We only spend a small number of our thoughts on challenges. At this point we breeze through potential struggles in our mind assuming that we either won’t have any or we will push right through them.
Read MoreIn the systems and habits approach to improvement, we learn how to form systems to help us reach our goals. We design the processes, the routines and the habits that take us towards success.
This helps to start changing our behaviors so that we automatically do the right thing. We don’t have to rely on willpower for every positive decision we make throughout the day.
Read MoreMany people that I know seem to just go through life without much thought about the direction they are heading. They think about immediate things such as problems that come up or challenges, but they don’t take the time really determine what it is they want.
Sometimes this is because we just know. We have a solid foundation of what we want out of life and it is easy to stick to it.
Read MoreThere is a line in the ancient took, the Tao Te Ching that says that we should avoid excess, extravagance and extremes.
It states that as the key to remaining happy and calm through life. If we strive for these areas we stop following nature’s way bringing unhappiness. If we push for these areas we can’t sustain them and we always worry about keeping up with those levels.
Read MoreFeedback loops are a systems concept where you have an outcome from a system being put back into the input of the system. This tends to reinforce the system or keep it balanced.
There are two different types of feedback loops with several variations of each. Each can be used in designing the systems and habits of your life. But you have to understand each and understand how they can be used to gain the most from them.
Read MoreTom Brady is arguably the greatest football player of all time. His accomplishments are unmatched. He has won numerous individual awards, such as MVP, as well as team awards. His team consistently plays for championships.
Tom Brady was recently interviewed for an upcoming playoff game and he was asked about whether or not he was nervous. His response was very telling of Brady and his ability to prep for a big game.
Read MoreOne aspect of self-improvement that often gets overlooked is to understand what you currently do. What is the current process?
We tend to get so excited about the future and what we hope to achieve that we don’t accurately assess where we are. So we assume we can set big goals since others have achieved similar results.
Read MoreA lot of people set goals around where they feel motivated. They have an inner desire to accomplish something and feel a surge of adrenaline.
They feel empowered. It seems easier now that they are filled with this energy. They assume the energy will help propel them to the finish line.
Read MoreThe systems and habits approach to improvement gives us a general way to go about improving any aspect we choose. We can get better in any number of areas as long as we follow the general systems guidelines to build the right structures, patterns, routines, and habits in our life.
One of the major differences between this approach and others is that other approaches rely almost exclusively on effort and motivation. The systems and habits approach uses much less effort and motivation and is more concerned with consistency.
Read MoreThe world is full of perfect systems. We usually don’t see the perfection because we are too busy judging aspects of the system that we dislike.
Most systems have side effects that seem negative at times but when looking at the full system we can see the perfection in the system.
Read MoreFailure is part of life. We all experience failures at various points in our lives. It is inevitable.
What matters isn’t that we fail, but how we respond. Many people experience a failure and then quit. They hate the feeling of failing so they justify their inaction because they simply don’t want to experience that feeling again.
Read MoreUsing the systems and habits approach to improve gives us a great path to move forward towards our goals. It sets out specific areas to leverage in order to build new routines and habits in our lives. It focuses more on the process than the outcome and more on making progress than striving for instant perfection.
One thing in life that everyone faces on a daily basis is the incredible rate of change in the world. New technologies emerge or people make decisions that impact us and suddenly we find that the world around us seems to have shifted.
Read MoreYears ago I worked for a non-profit organization that assisted small businesses. We provided all sorts of resources for them and guidance on areas of their business.
This was a great experience for me. Being a former small business owner, I had an inside view to some of the challenges that small business owners face. I also had started to better understand how business owners could use systems to improve their business.
Read MoreOne thing that can quickly trip someone up who is trying to reach a goal is to focus on perfection to soon. They expect perfection and anything less just isn’t good enough.
It might seem like a great strategy to work as hard as we can. But it actually causes an attitude of procrastination. It becomes safer for us to not take action than risk failure.
Read MoreWe all have choices. Our days are filled with millions and millions of little choices that we make. But most choices are made automatically with little conscious thought.
Some choices are obvious. When we sit down at a restaurant, we consciously choose the food we want to eat. When we decide to go for an advanced degree we choose to go back to college. When we get a call from a friend asking to go out for drinks we consciously choose to go or not go.
Read MoreEveryone wants success and happiness. While most people don’t have the ambition to work towards goals and they simply go through the motions of life, you can rise above that with the right habits.
Habits are incredibly important in determining our future because our behavior is about 95% habit. This means that what determines most of our actions throughout the day we have done in the past over and over and formed a pattern in our mind.
Read MoreHaving a clear vision of the future you want is important. If you are leading a group sharing the future state is important. It helps answer the question, “what’s the point?”
It allows everyone to be on the same page. Everyone may not agree with every step we take, but if everyone shares the same ultimate end goal, then we can often put aside our differences of opinion to keep making progress towards our goals.
Read MoreMost people put too much focus on events and not enough on patterns. This leads to a belief that these events are where success and happiness are made or broken.
They assume the vacation or new purchase is going to make them happy. It does, but because it is simply a one-time event, the happiness soon fades.
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