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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’ve led a lot of projects over the years. Some of these have been large-scale corporate projects involving multiple departments and numerous people all working towards one common outcome. Some have been small operational improvements that only involve a handful of people.
A lot goes into project management. There are countless books and methodologies that can help someone learn the best practices for taking a project from idea through completion.
Read MoreYears ago I read a book by Dr. Wayne Dyer that analyzed and explained the Tao Te Ching. The Tao Te Ching is an ancient text, 2,500 years old. Many throughout the ages have called it the wisest book ever written.
Dr. Dyer’s book was titled Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life. When I first started to read it I hated the title and felt it was too attention-grabbing and wouldn’t hold up to that incredible claim.
Read MoreSystems are made up of interconnecting elements that all work harmoniously towards a goal. This isn’t to say that every element is perfect on it’s own. It is just that as a full unit the system runs and operates as designed.
People judge systems, not based on their quality as a system, but in how the system impacts them. They see the various factors, outliers, side effects, etc. and then form an opinion of the system.
Read MoreI hear a lot of talk about the entitled millennial generation. Being on the edge of the age range of this generation, I have worked with many millennials.
For a while, I bought into the notion that the millennials were entitled, lazy and disconnected from reality. I saw first-hand some of these attributes. Certainly not all individuals in this particular generation fit the stereotype but many did.
Read MoreFinish the sentence, the more you gamble the more likely you will ____. What did you immediately think of?
Many people immediately chose the word “win.” They assume that gambling is about playing for longer periods of time so that you can hang in there through losses to reach the winnings.
Read MoreWhen I start to talk with someone about improvement, the biggest question that comes up in my mind is what are they doing on a regular basis? What are they doing daily that is different than most people? Are they doing the same things or vastly different things throughout their day?
This provides great insight into who they are. You can start to see from their actions what controls them and what they have control over. You can see limitations in their willpower. You can see areas of focus and what they feel is important.
Read MoreWhenever we set out to improve, we have to build the right systems. The systems are the key to whether or not we actually improve and get better.
But most people spend time focused elsewhere. They work on building their motivation. They create plans. They create vision boards displaying all the things they will buy once they succeed.
Read MoreWe all go through life with people influencing us. Sometimes that is good and positive role models help us achieve more and sometimes we get caught up with the wrong crowd.
Either way, systems thinking tells us that those factors matter in our life. We can’t simply ignore them. They matter.
Read MoreWhen you start to study systems thinking you start to realize the incredible value of thinking about the whole system when addressing problems. Most of the world goes through life following the more simplistic linear thinking. Since this is used over and over again, it must have some value.
Whenever you want to fix a problem, or improve some aspect of life, you have numerous ways to approach the problem. While I am a huge proponent of the value of systems thinking, sometimes it simply is unnecessary.
Read MoreIn systems thinking there is a concept called the balancing feedback loop. This is a system structure that works to maintain the status quo. It wants to make sure things stay as they are and not change.
This is great for many systems. We want our thermostat and furnace to work together to keep the temperature in our home comfortable during the cold winter months. Our body needs to regulate itself if we are outside working on a hot day by sweating and taking specific steps to avoid overheating. We even use this structure when we are speeding and get a ticket, telling us to slow down.
Read MoreDo you know why you need discipline in your life? It is simple. Discipline is how you earn your freedom.
That’s right. Discipline equals freedom.
Read MoreUsing systems and habits to improve provides a roadmap for how to structure elements in order to gain the most from the system.
You start small, building a few small elements of the system until they become more and more automatic as you do them. Because you focus on consistency above almost anything else, these start to fall into patterns where your brain connects them and uses them to automate future behavior.
Read MoreOne thing that I have learned from studying systems thinking is that many times the path forward has multiple options but we only focus on one or two options.
This is good to help us from being paralyzed by choices but sometimes it significantly limits us from achieving more. Sometimes there is a choice that isn’t obvious that would solve the problem in a better way than the instant solution that people think up.
Read MoreWhen it comes to self-improvement, I have learned that it can be painful but that discomfort shouldn’t be looked at as a bad thing. Within that pain is a seed of hope.
The reason is simple. If you are pushing yourself to change in a positive way, you will have to go against the current systems and habits in your life.
Read MoreWhat grabs your attention more, a news article describing the latest gruesome murder in your community or a new trend that has increasing incarceration rates?
The answer is simple. It is the criminal event. Events grab our attention. They become the crisis at hand. So we block out everything and focus on the event.
Read MoreWe all have our own idea of what success means. We envision money or accolades, excess or riches. We picture contentment and pride.
But one thing that seems to have spanned the history of man is the idea that successful people sacrifice. Usually they sacrifice gratification now for some additional value in the future.
Read MoreI have a bad tendency to compare myself to others. I look at another individual’s success and then compare against my own trials and tribulations.
Luckily I learned years ago to put less emphasis on this external comparison and more emphasis on comparing myself against myself. This allows me to avoid unfair comparisons and instead focus on improving myself over time.
Read MoreWe all go through life trying to make the most of our situation at any given time. Sometimes that means planning for the future. Sometimes that means enjoying the present. Sometimes that means learning from the past.
But doing this over time, I have realized that sometimes I hit the mark and sometimes I completely miss the mark. Sometimes I miss it so badly that my life seems to get turned upside down. It turns into a mess.
Read MoreIf you are using the systems and habits approach to improvement you likely have put in place several key behaviors that you do regularly. As you do this, you probably wondered if it is working. So you start to compare the progress that you have made to the end place that you hope to end up.
It is natural to do this. We all do it. We peek at the reward at the end of the journey and get sidetracked. We might be doing well and we convince our self that we can take it easy since we are making good progress.
Read MoreWe all perceive the world in our own way. We take our life experiences and form mental models to think about the world. We make the world fit into a mold that we create over time.
This helps life become predictable. It helps us deal with life knowing that everything has its place. We learn something new and morph the information to fit our already-known elements of life. We may adjust slightly but we don’t make bold, major changes in our mind, we only make more subtle shifts.
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