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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.
I just finished reading Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss. In the book he interviews successful individuals and asks them a series of questions.
Some of the questions are specific to their area of success and some are just general questions or curiosities. One question that he asked many of the people on in the book made me think, “How would I answer that question?”
Read MoreWhen you are really pushing yourself with the systems and habits approach to improvement you will certainly come across obstacles and tough times. You will feel it isn’t worth it or simply say to yourself, “this sucks.”
With most improvement strategies this signals the beginning of the end. This is when most people lose interest and decide that it isn’t worth the effort they have to put forth.
Read MoreDo you typically represent doing things right? When you do some basic task, do you do it just to get through it or do you do it to do it right?
Having worked with some great people over the years I have witnessed first hand how our attitude transfers between tasks throughout the day. Those who work hard to do things right and focus on the small elements tend to be able to transfer that to big projects and other aspects of their work.
Read MoreOne of the most difficult aspects of improvement is the first step that you take. It might be to start trying to get healthy or start budgeting your money to pay off credit card debt.
It could be to decide on a school for continuing your education or applying to your dream job. It could be to quit smoking or begin writing a screenplay.
Read MoreLife is complicated. Every day more information is shared online, on TV, through conversations etc. Scientists are always stretching human understanding. Professors are always finding new ways to research what makes life tick. Startups are constantly finding new innovation and pushing technology past our wildest dreams.
With this expanding knowledge-base, it is no wonder why life is complicated. We all experience the complexity of life on a daily basis.
Read MoreI’ve met a lot of people in my life that are so focused on being right that it gets in the way of their success. They don’t understand that always trying to prove your point has you too narrow-minded to see that there may be a better way.
I think the reason is because we are all risk-averse. We want to avoid risks that could result in pain and discomfort. So we avoid areas that have the potential to improve because we would rather be able to say, “see I told you.”
Read MoreLuck is a very interesting topic. When I talk to people about the idea of luck being responsible for success I tend to get one of two perspectives.
When we are talking about a success in their life, then they almost always point to hard work and their own effort. They minimize the impact luck had and assume their success was due to their work not some outside force.
Read MoreMost people think of changing as a grueling, painful process that forces us to use our willpower to the max in order to change some aspect of our lives. If we want to improve, our only option is to be miserable until the change is complete.
This is a horrible perspective on change. With this perspective, it is no wonder why most people fail to make significant improvements in their lives. They put the odds against them by assuming that willpower is the key to lasting change. It isn’t.
Read MoreI’ve worked with many people, in many different work environments. I’ve come to realize that I hate the word lazy.
One reason is because people define it differently. Sometimes people say if you aren’t doing physical labor you are lazy. Some people say if you aren’t willing to get an education you are lazy.
Read MoreA lot of people put happiness at the end of a long journey as the prize for completion. They assume happiness will come upon reaching their goal.
They say they will be happy when they finally meet someone special. They say they will be happy when their children finally move out, get a job, or get married. They say they will be happy when they can finally retire.
Read MoreThe other day I stumbled upon an article that talked about a very common feeling among the workforce. She described a sort-of corporate malaise that people feel. They feel bored at work, unsatisfied and are fed up doing something that they don’t want to do.
Her message was simple. Stop doing it. Stop doing anything that isn’t perfectly aligned with your passion. Doing anything else is giving in and you will never truly break away to be happy.
Read MoreThere is a saying that comes from the Tao Te Ching 2500 years ago that says that when you gain you also lose and when you lose you also gain.
The concept is that there are pros and cons to everything. So when you win, there are still cons. When you lose, there are still benefits. Sometimes people say you win when you lose and lose when you win. Either way of saying it, it comes down to the same idea.
Read MoreWhen you start modifying your life using the systems and habits techniques I discuss, you will start to enter a strange space.
It will feel like you keep doing the same things and keep doing what you might not want to do but know you should do. At this point you will start to understand the value of consistency.
Read MoreMost people look at events for most of their information. In systems thinking this means that they miss most of the important aspects of the systems and hone in on the most obvious manifestation of the system without even seeing the real system.
Peter Senge uses the concept of an iceberg. The tip of the iceberg is the event portion. That is the visible part of the system. The majority of the iceberg lives under the water. In systems thinking this includes the patterns, structures and mental models.
Read MoreIf your cup is full, you can’t add more. No matter how much you want to can’t add to something that is already full, you can’t.
The same idea can be found with knowledge. If we feel we know it all, then we aren’t open to new concepts and we don’t challenge our beliefs. This stops us from learning.
Read MoreWhen I graduated from college I entered the real world. I was hesitant as I spent my college days having fun, rather than preparing for the years after.
When I graduated I was looking for a way to avoid the normal path of finding a job related to my degree to start building my career. So I kept working my retail job and looked into graduate school.
Read MoreWhen most people evaluate some aspect of their life or business, they usually clarify their opinion about that area. They work through it in their head and start to judge what is right and what is wrong.
They start to turn the situation into a series of black and white aspects. They start to split it apart in their mind to see what is good and what is bad.
Read MoreWhen you set out on an improvement journey and you take the approach of applying continuous improvement, you have to realize that it will take time to see significant improvement. It won’t happen overnight.
Continuous improvement is the strategy where we make very small improvements that builds up over time to become something significant. They don’t start out with massive overhauls that suddenly bring accomplishments. They start small and are usually not noticeable for a while.
Read MoreMy whole career I have witnessed employees who are striving for more responsibility at work. They want promotions and career success and are working hard to achieve those.
This has given me a front-row seat to the strategies people use to get ahead. Some come in early and work late, hoping the extra hours they put in get the attention of leadership. Some take complete ownership of their area of responsibility. If they are a project manager they won’t let anyone else near their area – they own it and if you want access then you have to go through them.
Read MoreI hate the phrase do what I say not what I do. The idea behind this common phrase is that we know the right thing to do but we don’t do it.
But this isn’t that helpful. There is a reason why the person isn’t following his or her own insight. If they know what they should do but can’t get around to doing it, then they don’t really know what to do.
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