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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.
Years ago, after reading several motivational books criticizing news reporting, I stopped paying attention to the news. I didn’t visit any news websites. I didn’t watch TV much and if I did, it wasn’t the local or national news. I didn’t read the newspaper.
During that time, my mood improved. I stopped surrounding myself with people bitterly criticizing everything around them. I stopped focusing on “keeping up” with the news of the day.
Read MoreThe older I get the more I see hypocrisy in how we judge others. This isn’t because we are all horrible people. Rather, it is due to the complex systems in life and the human brain’s inability to process full systems.
Instead, we rely on linear thinking. We break the complex system down into something understandable. But we do it in a way that evaporates the many aspects of the system in our mind. We ignore them. It isn’t that they no longer exist, it is that they no longer exist in our comprehension.
Read MoreI love watching college football. This past season has been the strangest that I can ever recall. COVID has changed everything in life and college football is no different. Comparing this year to last year feels like two opposite ends of a spectrum.
One of the themes from this year is to keep moving in the face of adversity. All teams are facing adversity in one form or another. They might have positive cases on their staff. They might have players test positive. They might have opponents canceling games due to COVID.
Read MoreSystems are powerful elements of our lives that go largely unnoticed. They are ignored because they are subtle, hidden, and lack emotional shock.
Instead we focus our attention on events. Events are attention-grabbing. They pull us in with emotional shock. When something happens that is different from the norm, our curiosity awakens.
Read MoreOne of the payoffs to creating the right systems and habits in your life is that the benefits will keep growing. As you work the system, the system grows in intensity. It produces greater output. It improves as it is worked.
This means that the individual actions are paradoxical. They are both less important but also more important than you think. Each individual action might not mean much in the grand scheme. But each individual action is a leverage point that gives back more when you keep at it.
Read MoreMost people want the world to change. They see things they dislike. They find aspects unfair. They wish for the world to be better.
There is an inherent problem with this. Because people find fault in everything, there is always something to blame for our own unhappiness. We can always find something in the world that isn’t right, and then use it as a scapegoat.
Read MoreSystems thinkers know about feedback loops. We see them all over. We understand how powerful they can be.
Feedback loops take the output from a system and use it to influence the input. Sometimes we take the output and put it back into the system. Sometimes the output is monitored and then the input is adjusted.
Read MoreIn the systems and habits approach to improvement, we rely on discipline. But we use discipline in a different manner.
Using discipline long-term is difficult. Using discipline in the short-term is much easier. Yet we all fall into the fallacy that discipline has to be maintained for long periods for it to matter.
Read MoreWe have all heard that we should be more grateful. We should learn to appreciate things in life. We should avoid entitlement.
If we develop an extreme entitlement mindset it is likely to create lasting obstacles in life. If we feel we are owed a great deal, without working for it, we will start to shun hard work because we don’t feel it is fair.
Read MoreYears ago, I worked with someone who started at the bottom of the organization and worked her way to the top. She kept increasing her power in the organization at each step. She was reliable and found ways to succeed, regardless of the task.
Coworkers at each level seemed to identify with her. They seemed to be in sync in their thoughts of the organization and ways to improve it.
Read MoreMany of us like the idea of leading a healthier lifestyle but are held back by bad habits. Creating healthy habits isn’t always an easy ride, but it is achievable with a little perseverance. To help you get on track today, try these five pointers.
Read MoreWhen my grandmother passed away, I moved into her house. My family didn’t want to sell it right away, so I moved in. I lived there for a few years, bought the house, then eventually sold the house.
In the house, I found all sorts of old tools and equipment. Shovels and racks for the yard. Screwdrivers and hammers in the basement. It was a fully equipped house, yet I didn’t know many of the items we found.
Read MoreTaking breaks at work is so important but a lot of people make the mistake of thinking that more breaks mean less productivity. It’s a common misconception that hours worked equals output and if you take fewer breaks, you’ll get more done.
Some people also consider it to be lazy if you take regular breaks, which leads to people overworking themselves and eating lunch at their desk instead of taking some time away. But learning how to take regular breaks will actually benefit your work in a lot of ways. These are some of the reasons that it’s important to take breaks at work.
Read MoreApplying a system thinking approach to your business is highly beneficial. The tools and analysis used can help you increase your output by tweaking your input. Systems theory is particularly effective at pinpointing and solving the main problems in your business. In fact, this is one of the reasons people are encouraged to take up this approach. It can help you find answers and solutions that would otherwise escape your gaze.
Read MoreInconsistent actions cause most people to struggle. These individuals put in the work. They put forth the effort to succeed. But because they are inconsistent, they don’t reach the levels of success and happiness that they deserve.
Our society doesn’t put enough emphasis on the importance of consistency. We attract to the outlier events, so we gloss over the common patterns.
Read MoreThe systems and habits approach to improvement relies on constantly tweaking your daily behaviors. We develop standard ways of doing things and then work to adjust them to provide greater benefit.
We look for ways to improve what we are doing. We test those tactics. Then, if they provide a better outcome, we standardize them so we can continue using those optimal tactics.
Read MoreEveryone has an opinion. Some openly share their opinion all the time. They feel that by arguing their side, others will see the truth in their words and take on their opinion.
But this doesn’t happen. In fact, the more people argue about their position, the more they dig in. They refuse to accept any contradictory facts. In their mind they are right. Their thoughts work overtime to disprove any information that says they might be incorrect.
Read MoreWhen we explore systems, we notice several patterns and structures. One is the balancing feedback loop. This occurs when there is a balancing force holding the output of the system within a specific range.
This can be a good thing. The thermostat in your house keeps the output (temp in your home) consistent. Instead of fluctuating wildly, it remains a comfortable temperature.
Read MoreThe other day I was listening to some reggae music and scrolling through a news article. The song spoke about unity and peace. It promoted the idea that the world is too fragmented and needs to unite.
I thought it was funny that I was reading an article promoting the same concept. But as the song went on I started to realize that the message sounded as though it was about unity but it wasn’t. The singer wanted the other side to give up and adopt the singer’s beliefs.
Read MoreSystems need to be flexible. They may withstand some change and maintain their integrity but in time there will be a need to change the system.
Some people feel this is bad. If it works why change it? If it isn’t broke, why look for a fix?
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