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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.
Being creative is something that most people attribute to artists, musicians, and entrepreneurs. They don’t think they are creative because they aren’t creating works of art or new businesses.
But this isn’t true. Everyone is creative. We all create many variables in our lives. We create opportunities; we create our habits; we create our daily routines.
Read MoreWhen it comes to setting goals and trying to accomplish new objectives in life, it is natural to want to get there quickly. We want to reach the finish line right away.
This leads to a natural tendency to rush. We rush through the hard work in order to get to the prize. Unfortunately, though, this rushing hurts our ability to win the prize. It makes it more likely that we will fall short of our goal.
Read MoreWhen you are setting out to reach a goal, two elements are paradoxical but both are very important to your success.
You have to learn how to be flexible. This represents to some, a pivot from their original strategy. The second element is consistency. We have to take enough consistent action to start to see the fruits of our labor.
Read MoreAt the center of the systems and habits approach to improvement is the ability to understand yourself. For this method to work, you have to learn how to know your strengths and weaknesses. Then we leverage strengths and fix weaknesses.
This sounds easy. We all assume we know us. We know our innermost thoughts. We know what we did yesterday. We know how it felt to be in each and every situation.
Read MoreIn business environments we tend to measure and track much more than in our personal lives. Businesses utilize different types of information to get a good sense of how the business is performing.
But in our personal lives we don’t. It could be that we are too lazy or that we don’t think we need to measure because everything is directly accessible to us. But when it comes to improvement, performance measurement is very important.
Read MoreIt is natural to want to avoid embarrassment and criticism. I don’t know anyone who enjoys those things.
This prevents us from jumping into situations before knowing how it will all work out. We remain in our comfort zones to avoid potential embarrassment or criticism.
Read MoreRecently I was watching a college football game and heard the broadcasters praise the head coach of the winning team. They said the coach always remained calm.
They said he would calmly address a mistake from a player. He didn’t yell. He didn’t scream. He didn’t spend his energy trying to display his leadership to those watching. Instead he had confidence in his ability and would simply do the right thing.
Read MoreThe other night I was watching some college football and kept hearing a theme. The broadcasters kept stating that the team needed to “find a way.” They needed to find a way to win, find a way to make a play, find a way to get a turnover.
We hear this a lot in sports. During the course of the game, we watch, hoping a player will make a good play. We don’t know how exactly, but they need to do something.
Read MoreI love reading success stories and motivational books. I tend to find the ways that the individual used principles from the systems and habits approach to improvement in order to succeed.
Most of the time there is alignment. They started small and just kept working and working until they hit a breakthrough; they changed up their routines and didn’t allow themselves to fall back on bad habits, etc.
Read MoreProblems are everywhere. We all have them. They surface for everyone and each time a problem comes up, we will likely respond in a similar fashion.
We start to develop a habit of handling problems a specific way. Do we take it personal and get upset about it? Do we try to calmly work through the problem to see why it occurred and look for ways to eliminate the problem from occurring in the future?
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 MoreOur behaviors follow patterns. We react in similar ways when confronted with similar stimuli. In certain environments we act by doing the same thing we have always done.
We often feel we have control over these types of autopilot thoughts and behavior. But time and time again we react and think about what’s happening much less than we realize.
Read MoreIf we want good habits, we have to figure out how to take learning and turn it into habit. It sounds easy. We assume we hear something new, and then apply it continuously the rest of our lives.
But this isn’t the way it happens. Usually that new information fades over time before we can apply it to our behavior. If we are lucky to apply it to our behavior, we usually only apply it for a short time.
Read MoreRecently I adjusted how I track my daily routines. I tweaked a few metrics that I use. I also set a daily minimum for gratitude.
I would think of three things every day for which I am grateful. They could be basic things such as the colorful autumn leaves. They could be around fun adventures with my wife and children. It could be something positive from work. It could be the upcoming weekend plans.
Read MoreYears ago, I was working in a production environment. We wanted to maximize the production of the location. We measured the output from each individual and the group as a whole.
We had several high performers and a few low performers. But most of the technicians were in the middle. They didn’t produce at a high level but didn’t produce at a low level. They were in the middle.
Read MoreIn systems thinking, we often look at a structure known as the feedback loop. There are several variations of the feedback loop. Of these, the reinforcing feedback loop is the one that can you use to improve the most.
This type of feedback loop occurs when the output of a system is fed back into the input. Then it is amplified and sent to the output. The output signal is then fed back into the input of the system to be amplified all over again.
Read MoreIt is said that the only constant in life is change. We all experience it. Therefore, we have to learn how to adjust with the times.
But to keep improving, we have to learn how to stay the course as well. Most goals are long-term. We can't snap our fingers and reach our highest ambitions.
Read MoreMost people want be successful. They want the awards, accolades, money, rewards, etc. for doing a job well-done. They envision what it will be like when they achieve their goal.
When we envision success, many people miss the long journey towards success. They envision a quick win. Or they keep the hard work in the background and focus solely on what it will feel like to win.
Read MoreLife can be chaotic. We all experience ups and downs in life. Some of these are natural, such as our aging through time, and other times this is unexpected.
Regardless of why, the impact is real. It feels as though complexity has overcome our world and stolen control. Without control, we start to get anxious. For many, this leads to a panicked mindset.
Read MoreWhen I was younger and ran into difficulties I would often stop. I would want to wait to better understand what is going on before I took a next step.
This would result in analysis. I would analyze the situation to try and find the best path forward. While trying to figure out what to do, I would stop any action.
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