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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.
When we set out to improve some aspect of our life, we usually start with something that makes us unhappy. Something provides an element of pain or discomfort.
It could be that we haven’t made the right decisions in the past and we are paying the price today. It could be that we were wrong in certain assumptions about the level of success or happiness we would attain in life.
Read MoreAs a parent I keep noticing that I am teaching my children to judge. We want them to understand right and wrong. We want them to be kind, polite and well behaved.
So we set out to teach them how to go through life in a way that will ultimately help them achieve more and become well integrated with others. We want them to be happy and to be happy, we contend, they must understand how to navigate the world and avoid trouble.
Read MoreLife is always going to have an element of unpredictability to it. No matter what we think should happen, fate always intervenes and adjusts the future reality.
One of the things I enjoy about this time of year is the start of the American football season. I have a few teams that I enjoy watching and even tend to enjoy watching games with teams that I have no real interest in.
Read MoreWe can all gain additional strength to do the right thing. While most people assume there is some magical trick to suddenly be able to improve self-control it is actually must simpler.
The way to do this is by using our willpower to build certain habits. Then as those habits become automatic and easy to keep doing, we add more and more.
Read MoreTrying to lose weight is a common goal. We set out to shed the extra pounds we picked up or finally get back to our desired weight.
But most of the techniques that we use are flawed. They work to get us to lose a few pounds but many times are setting us up for future failure.
Read MoreWhen it comes to self-improvement most people struggle. They know where their weaknesses lie but don’t address them. They come to terms with them.
They know their strengths and are happy to leave them at the level they currently reside. Why bother improving if it is a strength?
Read MoreSystems thinking differs from the way most people think. It looks at full systems and the interconnecting elements of the system instead of just looking at small subsections of the system.
This allows us to see a bigger picture and get a better understanding of the full system. It allows us to better understand the world around us.
Read MoreSystems are everywhere. Everything around us is part of numerous overlapping systems in life and everything that happens in our life can be explained through these systems.
Sometimes they are easy to see. We see the solar system, the various systems that regulate our body, the traffic systems in place to help us travel safely, and weather systems.
Read MoreIf you want to succeed, learn how to set bright-line rules. In legal terms, the bright-line rule is one that has a clear, objective definition. It isn’t vague or ambiguous.
When we try to improve some aspect of our life, we often do so with strategies that are not very clear. We want to get healthy so we say we will work out more and eat healthier food.
Read MoreI was reading a book the other day called, Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength by Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney. The book talks about the latest research on willpower and how we can improve in this important area.
It is interesting to read about the connection between willpower and parenting in the chapter called, “Raising Strong Children.” The authors talk about the various elements required to properly discipline a child.
Read MoreOne of the benefits of using the systems and habits approach to improvement is that it avoids the licensing effect.
The Licensing effect (or self-licensing) is when you do something good and then use that to justify doing something bad afterwards. So if you get a great workout in and then immediately head to the donut shop to reward yourself you are self-licensing.
Read MoreOne thing that gets misunderstood when it comes to personal improvement in life is the fact that habits are more important than doing a good deed.
When we want to improve, most people think in events. They think of a goal they have to achieve or a one-time change they have to make. They think about short-term changes just to reach the objective rather than permanent adjustments.
Read MoreWhen it comes to systematic improvement, one element that is crucial is the ability to track your progress. You have to be able to see what is happening and know for certain what direction you are heading.
Are you improving or just going through the motions but remaining stagnant? How often are you keeping up with the action steps you designed?
Read MoreI work in a very complex environment. I oversee the operations of a growing business and in doing so have to be aware of many different areas of the business.
There are technical aspects, logistical aspects, customer service aspects etc. I often go through my day with more and more tasks accumulating that need completed.
Read MoreOne of the things that I learned when I started using the systems and habits approach to improvement was that I couldn’t trust the words that I spoke. I couldn’t even trust my thoughts because too often they were misleading.
I told myself that I wanted be prosperous. But I wasn’t willing to work more for more money. I told myself that I wanted to be healthy but I didn’t eat healthy foods or exercise. I was constantly telling myself what I thought was true but often my actions didn’t follow along.
Read MoreIn systems thinking we often explore feedback loops. These are phenomenon where the output of a system goes back into the input of the system. These are everywhere.
It could be a system where we start to pour our glass of milk and stop at precisely the right time. Most people never think about this as a process or a system but if we do we can see the feedback loop structure present.
Read MoreLife is unfair. It isn’t designed to have a very direct link between cause and effect. It incorporates randomness. It incorporates luck. Sometimes it seems like it all makes sense and other times it is completely baffling.
But we have to learn to see that we cannot control outside forces but we can control us. We can reach deep inside to determine what we do in the face of life’s unfairness.
Read MoreHaving the willpower to resist temptation is something that can help you reach your goals and become more successful and happy. Being able to put off instant gratification to gain more in the future is a tried and true strategy for improvement.
Call it self-control or self-discipline, the ability to use willpower to will you to do the right thing provides incredible rewards. Not having enough creates some of the most common struggles for people everywhere.
Read MoreWe all operate through numerous systems in life. These systems are mechanical, biological, technological, habitual, etc.
Most of the systematic influence in life is ignored. We ignore the patterns and instead focus our attention on outliers. We see shock and awe and then turn our thoughts to the events, ignoring the underlying structures that determine more but attract less attention.
Read MoreWhen we start using the systems and habits approach to improvement and we start to build new structures and adjust existing structures, we will likely find that some are easier to change than others.
Not all systems elements are created equal. If we want to build a habit where we read every day that might be easy for some but hard for others. If we want to start exercising some will instantly be able to keep going with the new behaviors and others will struggle to consistently take action.
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