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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.
The other day I was having a discussion with a friend. I was explaining some frustration. I said that I experienced a failure in an area where I thought I had it all together.
It caught me off guard. I didn’t expect it to end up the way it did. I was explaining that it shook my confidence and made me start to question other areas.
Read MoreThe other day I heard an advertisement that said, “Your Opportunity Awaits.” They were trying to sell something. The message was that there is opportunity but first you have to buy their product.
From a marketing perspective they follow a common theme. The marketer wants to create a gap between what you want and what you have. Then they explain how their product will fill the gap and get you what you want.
Read MoreBeing creative in a business environment comes easy for some, but for most of us, it is challenging to come up with innovative and unique solutions to our most pressing problems.
It's typically easy to see why a problem occurred or even suggest what everyone else should do to solve the problem. But when it's our responsibility to address the issue, that's when things get complicated. We often see unlimited options and analyze the consequences of each choice. We see an uphill battle with uncertain outcomes. However, we can overcome the fear of the unknown and hone in on the best available option. We can get creative. And the good news is that if being creative isn’t innate for you, there are specific action steps to choosing a path forward.
Read MoreWe all get caught up in feeling anxious about the obstacles in our way. We all face problems, and we want them fixed right away. When the problems keep piling up, we get overwhelmed and want to fix them all right away.
Jumping from problem to problem without fixing the system doesn’t make anything better in the long-term. It is important to see things from a higher perspective. We need to see that the problem of the day feels stronger today that it will in a month, or a year.
Read MoreThere is an interesting phenomenon that happens when we study winners. It could be that we want to see how the successful business found its footing. It could be that we want to see how the Super Bowl champ won it all. It could be that we evaluate the tactics of the award-winning individual.
If we single out the winners, we will hear similar refrain. They will attribute their success to their hard work and the long hours. If they are humble, they will credit their support team and those that helped.
Read MoreVariety is the spice of life. Doing the same thing over and over can become mundane and boring. While we appreciate doing things that we always have, we have to be willing to do something different if we want different results.
Yet the systems and habits approach to improvement is all about consistency. Habits only form when we take the same steps. If we keep changing everything, we won’t form the routine needed.
Read MoreWe can all learn to train our mind. The random thoughts in our heads come and go. Some call it our monkey brain because it jumps around and can’t seem to sit still.
This often creates a sense of helplessness when it comes to our thoughts. We can’t control what fleeting concepts come into focus.
Read MoreAre you a generally unlucky person? Do you seem to miss opportunities? Many unlucky people never realize that the reason they are unlucky is because of them, not fate.
I once heard someone say that luck is preparedness meeting opportunity. They said that they were very lucky. But the only reason they could capitalize on that luck was because they already did the work.
Read MoreSystems thinking helps us to see the interconnectedness in life. It allows us to see more than the superficial, news-story, right-in-front-of-our-face view. It provides more understanding. It clues us in to what is going on. It gives us more to life.
I always think about the old story about the village experiencing an elephant for the first time. Each member of the village is blindfolded and then taken into a tent. The tent contains an elephant.
Read MoreWhen I was in college earning a psychology degree I studied Abraham Maslow. Maslow brought the world of psychology a great deal. His insights are still relevant today.
Maslow is most known for his hierarchy of needs. This is a pyramid structure that explains human motivation.
Read MoreWhen you start to use the systems and habits approach to improvement what you are really doing is focusing on execution. You focus on how to improve.
While this may seem obvious, the benefits are incredible. Most people avoid execution and instead put their focus on everything but execution.
Read MoreWhen I was younger I formed a bunch of bad habits. I smoked. I drank a lot. I ate extremely unhealthy food on a regular basis. I never exercised.
I remember during those days being frustrated that I couldn’t seem to change. When I decided I wanted to quit smoking people would give me all sorts of advice.
Read MoreI heard a quote the other day from a friend. He didn’t recall who said it but he repeated it to me while we were having a conversation about self-improvement.
He said, “No one has the power over you unless you give it them, you are in control of your life and your choices decide your own fate.”
Read MoreWhen I first stumbled upon the systems and habits approach to improvement I started to slowly put in place new tactics to improve. I started small and looked to consistently change certain behaviors.
My focus shifted from effort and quality to consistency and quantity. I made sure to do X every day, even though X wasn’t anything major.
Read MoreWe all have the tools necessary to succeed in life. I see this time and time again through a disadvantaged individual who goes on to achieve great things. They often overcome their disability and then continue to rise.
They grow and improve. They don’t complain about their lot in life. They push past their limitations. In fact, they often push further than many non-disabled.
Read MoreWhy do you stick with it? This is a question I get from time to time regarding some system that I developed.
It could be that someone asks why I stick with eating a certain healthy lunch every day or why I exercise every morning. It seems that they always have other ways to accomplish the same thing.
Read MoreI’ve heard a lot of people compare human learning with computer programming. The idea is that we can easily program whatever we want in our life. It isn’t magic, it is simply doing the work of inputting the formula.
When it comes to inputting the formula that is the same as creating the process. When we talk about using systems and habits to improve, we rely on creating these new processes to control our behavior. This allows us to build new routines, habits, structures etc.
Read MoreEveryone hates the cocky, selfish person. We see someone constantly trying to take from others so that they get more and more, while others get less and less.
We all like generous people. We think highly of the person who gives more and more to others.
Read MoreHabits are a part of life that most people minimize. They assume when someone says habit that they are talking about some bad habit they picked up like smoking or biting one’s nails.
But habit is much more than that. Habit is how life operates. Animals rely on habits to behave and think the way they do. Humans rely more on habit than rational thought, allowing our decisions to form patterns and then utilize those patterns to dictate future actions.
Read MoreYears ago I shifted my frame of reference on goals from having a desire for perfection to being keenly focused on making progress. Instead of wanting everything to fall into place, I was more concerned about the fact that I was growing and improving.
This gave me a new perspective on life. It allowed me to change in order to ultimately improve beyond the level I found myself at the time.
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