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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.
If you want to improve and get better, one thing you have to be willing to do is to take risks. Risk is always there when we change something.
We take a risk that it won’t work. We take a risk because we don’t know exactly how it will all play out and there may be side effects, missed opportunities or failures.
Read MoreIt amazes me how many times a group of people can head in a direction that seems so wrong. We see a cult’s demise and wonder how so many people were involved and misguided to such a large degree.
We all assume we are above those influences. We think we would have been able to see through it all to see it is just a scam.
Read MoreLife is full of choices. Every day we are bombarded by options. We wake up and immediately have to decide what to do. Do we eat first then shower? Do we drive to work our usually route or change it up?
Then we get to work and more choices need to be made. Do we take this new product to market? Do we have the correct operational structure in place to tackle upcoming changes in the marketplace?
Read MoreWe all want to be happy. We have a desire to be relatively stress-free and upbeat. We don’t want to be miserable every day and in pain from the time we wake until we go to sleep.
But outside of the obvious notion that we want to be happy, we all have different ideas of what happiness actually means. Some feel it means freedom, some feel it means pleasure and some feel it means healthy.
Read MoreMost people remain relatively the same throughout their lives. They go through natural changes as they age, but we really don’t change as much as we do when we are young.
Part of the reason is that we find what works. We start to see what works and what doesn’t. Then we stick with what has worked for us.
Read MoreEveryone has strengths and everyone has weaknesses. Everyone has positives and negatives about them. No matter whom you are talking about, there are things they do well and things they do poorly.
If we all have strengths and weaknesses, how can some people become successful while others struggle to have any real success in their life?
Read MoreWhat if we take all of the automatic behaviors and automatic choices we make, and start to mold those into something new? Can we take a series of habits that we are not even aware of and change those to drive us in a new direction?
Yes we can. We can start to make subtle changes that have lasting impact. It won’t happen by making the choice once, but it certain is within our abilities if we can make the choice over and over and over.
Read MoreOne of the core elements of the systems and habits approach to improvement is to constantly make adjustments to the way we live our lives in order to get better over time.
This naturally means that we have to keep learning and seeking out new information so we know where to make changes. Thinking systematically will help but only gives the general structure, not the specifics of each circumstance.
Read MoreObesity is a growing epidemic in the United States. We hear about it on the news, read about it in medical journals, and experience it when we are in our doctor’s office seeing multiple images on the wall pointing to weight control.
While many people want to shed a few pounds, they probably don’t realize that they are up against their body’s natural desire to keep weight on and store fat for future emergencies when it is needed.
Read MoreOne of the reasons why the systems and habits approach can be so powerful is because it follows how our body functions. All animals follow patterns. There is rhythm to our sleep/wake cycles, how we chew food, the routines we rely on each day and much more.
The systems and habits approach to improvement plugs into this by creating recurring thoughts and behaviors. The more we do something, consistently near the same time each day, the more that pattern will become engrained.
Read MoreWe all utilize habits and routines throughout our lives. This helps us automate actions and thoughts that we do over and over and over.
We don’t want to have to watch a YouTube video every morning to remember how to brush our teeth or take a shower. We don’t want to have to think about every little step in the process.
Read MoreIf you are new to systems thinking, you might get overwhelmed by all of the information and terminology. You can read through models and explore feedback loops but still not quite understand much more than, “everything is a system.”
If this is familiar to you, one of the best steps to take is to start to look for patterns in life. Patterns give us a clear look at the byproducts of a system. You might not be able to spot the system, but the pattern can tip you off as to where to look.
Read MoreFollowing the systems and habits improvement techniques often means starting with very small steps. Some people see this as pointless. They assume that we should ‘go big or go home.’
But there is good reasoning behind starting small. Starting small makes it much easier to keep going and not get discouraged and quit. Why would you quit if it were really easy?
Read MoreRecently I was in a meeting at work discussing a problem that we were facing. We were notified of a change that would have a pretty major impact on how we operate the business.
As we thought through various options we soon realized that we really just had a bunch of bad options. There wasn’t a great option that jumped out us. We were presented with about three or four ways to respond, all with their own consequences and not much benefit.
Read MoreIn thinking systematically about life, we often come across a common pattern where something just seems to build and build. We call this a reinforcing feedback loop.
Reinforcing feedback loops are everywhere. They can be very subtle or incredibly powerful.
Read MoreWhen you start on your path of improvement using the systems and habits approach, you will likely be torn at times between trying to keep going and wondering if you are doing enough.
Because the focus is on building habits, how much we do is less important than the fact that we keep going long enough for it to start to become more automatic. But the perfectionist inside us probably screams that we aren’t doing enough.
Read MoreYears ago I was involved in the purchase and start-up of a new franchise location for a business. It was an exciting experience and one I learned a great deal from.
One thing that I heard constantly during this time was to “follow the system.” Being somewhat of a systems fanatic it was refreshing to hear such a focus on the system.
Read MoreWhen I start an improvement program for some aspect of my life I have noticed that my expectations of the results and the way the results actually come are often quite different.
Most of us set goals based on the outcome we hope to see. Even if we set process goals instead of outcome goals to help us do the things necessary, we still have expectations of when we will see results.
Read MoreUtilizing habits in our lives to improve and focusing on the systems around us can be a great way to move through life. With habits and systems, the focus is on slow, continuous improvement.
While this is a great way to improve your own life, this thinking has been around in businesses for years. Continuous improvement methods vary but they all have at their core the idea that it will take a lot of time so start slowly making things better now.
Read MoreMany of us don’t see the full impact the habits in our life have on our wellbeing. We know habits play a role in our life but most people assume this role is limited to a few bad habits and automatic routines like driving to work.
These are certainly habits, but our habits are actually much deeper and more ingrained in our lives. Habits determine much more than deciding if we bite our nails. They determine who we are and how happy we are.
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