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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.
Benjamin Franklin once said, “Diligence is the mother of good luck.” There is a saying that the harder one works, the more good luck they get. I’ve even heard someone once say that good luck is simply preparation meeting opportunity.
While these all may motivate us and convince us to keep working hard and doing our due diligence, the reality is that luck isn’t something that we can completely control.
Read MoreIf I were to offer you $100 today or if you wait one year I will pay you $250, which would you choose?
Most people would naturally choose the $100. We want the reward now, even if it is discounted compared to what we could get in the future.
Read MoreIf a friend came to you with an idea for a completely new type of website and said he was dropping out of a very prestigious college to chase his dream, what would you say?
Would you support him? Would you invest in him? Would you tell him he was crazy and that he should stick with college and do this as a hobby?
Read MoreIn systems thinking we are always looking for certain structures or templates. These tend to manifest in many ways and in many different systems.
One of these structures is the balancing feedback loop. The balancing feedback is set up to maintain equilibrium.
Read MoreMost people think that their passion is what is really important in life. They feel that following their passion they should be guaranteed success.
But this isn’t true. We aren’t entitled to success just because we are passionate. We assume this passion leads to constant motivation to keep moving forward to reach our goals.
Read MoreThere is a phrase that gets used a lot by all of us. It seems innocent enough but carries with it a heavy block of cement that drags us under water over time.
The phrase can be tweaked to fit many different situations. We can use it to talk about going after our goals, fixing a problem in our life, or doing something we know we should do.
Read MoreTime is precious. We only have so much time available each day. We only live once and if we waste away our life, we don’t get a do-over.
This means that we have to value our time and not let it slip away without our permission. We can’t let it escape or get stolen away.
Read MoreFor many people, they go through life feeling as though life is lacking and is a constant struggle. We go through the moments in our life feeling inadequate and fighting for what we feel we deserve.
Having this aggressive mindset can reinforce the feeling of constant struggle. But there is a better way. It involves feeling happy and content but still continuing to work hard to keep improving.
Read MoreAll animals, including humans, rely on habit to get through their day. The brain is wired in a way that allows us to flow through repetitive activities without conscious thought directing our actions.
When we brush our teeth or drive our car, we rely more on habitual movements than on conscious thought. When the traffic light turns green we naturally remove our foot from the brake and apply it slowly to the gas pedal. When we are driving and the light turns yellow, then red, we naturally and automatically slow down the vehicle to stop prior to the intersection.
Read MoreThere are many things in life that we have no control over. In those instances it is easy to feel as though we don’t have control over anything.
But that isn’t the case. We have a great deal of control over the direction our life takes. We make conscious and subconscious decisions that impact the path we take.
Read MoreThe phrase business as usual is used a lot in the media. Many times it is used to describe the indifference of a company or individual who refuses to do the right thing. They put profit ahead of virtue and achievement ahead of taking a moral high road.
But I like to think of it a little differently. To me business as usual means we get back to the core actions. From a business perspective it means getting back to what it is that helped the company reach its level of success. From a personal standpoint, it means we get back to our habits and routines.
Read MoreScott Adams is the creator of the Dilbert comic strip. He has experienced success and is known to be an avid systems thinker.
He promotes the idea of systems thinking and the benefits of thinking systematically instead of linearly. He has some great YouTube videos if you are interested in hearing his take on systems.
Read MoreWhenever we want to change a habit in our life, we have to be patient and realize it takes time. It will take longer than we realize early on because if the habit is a positive one, it is likely going to be harder to get it to stick.
This is because the nature of habits. Habits tend to form when we have behaviors that get reinforced. If we decide to do something that provides instant, positive feedback, then we will be more likely to do it again. If it provides instant, negative feedback, then we will be less likely to do it again.
Read MoreMany times we view something as complex, simply because we don’t understand it. We don’t see how everything connects and interacts. We don’t see the full system, just a bunch of random details.
I love watching college football. I find it exciting and interesting to see how each team fares throughout the season and into the bowl season.
Read MoreHave you ever lost your keys and felt crazy because you just couldn’t find them? You checked all of the logical places but found nothing.
I think we have all lost our keys at one point in our lives. It could be due to a disorganized house, or sharing keys with someone else, but most likely the problem is much simpler than that.
Read MoreWhen it comes to systems and habits improvement, we have to fall in love with the process. We have to find a way to enjoy doing the work so we can continue to do it and grow from it.
We don’t look at hard work as just something we have to do. It isn’t something to hate. It isn’t something to shortcut.
Read MoreSometimes something happens to us that rocks us to our core. It could be a health scare, or layoff at work. It could be the loss of a loved one or some tragedy that springs up out of nowhere.
I have always struggled with how to process these. I tend to look inward quite a bit. I try to use it as a reflection on what is going on inside me. What am I doing that this highlights and shows that I am on the wrong path?
Read MoreThere have been several times in my life when I realized that a core belief that I had was wrong. I found something that suddenly changed what I thought was an absolute truth.
Each time this happened it drastically changed my life. It forced me to adjust how I live my life and how I view the world.
Read MoreFear is commonplace in life. We all experience fear from time to time. Sometimes this fear is perfectly normal and healthy and other times fear gets magnified or exaggerated and we make poor decisions due to feeling fear.
But too often fear controls our life. It does this by constantly prompting our decisions. It gives a little nudge every time we think about certain areas.
Read MoreI’ve read a lot of books about using systems and habits to improve and accomplish goals. As I read, sometimes it seems to be presented in a way where it seems like we just found out about some magic tactic.
It almost seems like success in anything is suddenly guaranteed. All we have to do is follow the system. But it’s more complicated than that.
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