The US Navy SEALs have a saying they use when training. They say, “the only easy day was yesterday.” It signifies that each day presents new and increasingly difficult obstacles. Instead of hoping for the workload to ease up, they embrace the growing challenges.
It can be a great motivational tool to get through those difficult days when inspiration is absent. It reminds us to focus on doing the work, not expecting everything to be handed to us. It shatters the entitlement mindset that holds us in place. It keeps us aspiring to reach new levels of success.
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Gravitating towards something you know is bad for you is common. We see it all the time in sports, with celebrities, in businesses, with our own actions. It seems that knowing doesn’t change our behavior with something luring us towards a bad decision.
This isn’t a modern-day problem or phenomenon. It is a human occurrence. While the story of major travesty is often promoted, the subtle draw is more common and equally devastating.
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It seems everyone is busy. More than ever before, I come across people who are buried in work. They are so busy they can’t do basic things.
They can’t take care of themselves. No time for exercise, or rest, or budgeting, or meditation. They can’t find a minute to prep for the lunch and must rely on the quickest option in the moment, the drive thru.
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Change is something we all face. We all go through life changing with the circumstances. This is normal and natural.
We have all met people that seem to take on change with ease and willingness. We also meet people who resist change with everything they have.
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When we are working towards a goal, we often get to a point where the systems and habits start to drive our behavior. This turns into results.
During these times, sometimes the tendency is to keep pushing. We want to increase the pace of our improvement.
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With any goal or project, we must keep our focus on what is important. It isn’t just that final outcome that we need to keep top of mind.
Most people easily do that. But they still slip up and miss their goal. Why? The key isn’t the outcome or the focus on what it will be like when you hit your objective.
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Over the years I’ve learned how to see systems in life. This has been an incredible advantage throughout my personal and business life.
But I am not unique. I’ve read hundreds of books that promote the idea of using systems to see the world and then adjust to optimize the system to benefit from it.
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When studying systems thinking, we come across many systems with multiple layers to them. Many systems can be viewed through the layers that make it up.
When we are creating systems in our personal life, we can use the concept of layers to help achieve our goals. But what could this look like from a personal improvement standpoint?
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The world needs balance. Our lives need to have balance. Without balance things get chaotic and unhealthy.
The earth is full of balancing aspects to keep everything moving. Our body is constantly working to remain in a balanced state.
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When we are motivated, we often identify aspect of our life that we want to change. Often, this takes the form of some major point of misery or strong desire that convinces us to crave something more.
This desire rises and takes hold of our thoughts. We can’t shake it. We need this new change, and we must find a way to acquire it.
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Everyone gets to a point where they need to slow down and get a start fresh. It could be after a big project gets completed at work. It could be after recovering from an illness. It could be after a big move into a new house. It could be after the holidays, once summer start, or after getting the spring cleaning completed.
During these times, there is energy. It could be positive energy with excitement, calming energy after making it through something, or negative energy after a major loss.
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If you use the systems and habits approach to improve, you will build up great habits. You will start to achieve your goals and experience success.
Everyone who follows this approach will eventually hit an ultimate crossroad. This ultimate crossroad will be difficult and confusing.
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We all know the feeling of taking on too much. It could be at work. It could be at home. We run the kids to their appointments, remember to pay the bills, cut the grass, and still need to remember to take care of ourselves.
It often feels as though we sprint all day just to get to bed before midnight. We run ragged and then hit the weekend hoping to squeeze in some fun and relaxation. Instead of fun, we end up working all weekend to get caught up for the moment.
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Resulting is the term that is used by poker players to describe when they use the outcome of the hand to judge their decision. If they win, they assume they made a good choice. If they lose, they assume they made a bad choice.
But poker, just as in life, contains risk. This means there are factors that are unpredictable. There are elements that are beyond our control and beyond our ability to know ahead of time.
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Building new systems and habits to replace old ones is challenging. There are many reasons why this occurs.
One reason is based on the Familiarity Heuristic. This is a bias towards the familiar. When we judge something, if it is familiar, we rank it higher than if it is novel.
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In life we all have choices. The most obvious choices are the major life choices we make as we age. But there are many subtle choices that we make that we may not notice.
Often, we avoid making a deliberate choice and accept the default option. Because we find it difficult to choose, we take whatever is left.
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I emphasize in my articles and books the limitations of using willpower. Many studies have explored willpower and conclude that it is a finite resource.
As we use willpower, it depletes. If we have a stressful day of work and use willpower to get through it without screaming at someone, then we won’t have as much willpower to avoid the fast-food lane on the drive home.
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Whenever we evaluate a system, we are always curious about the various leverage points. These are the aspects of the system that hold great power.
We can apply a relatively small amount of force to this leverage point, and it produces an output much greater than our efforts. Just as we use a lever to gain power, we can use these points in the system to gain power over the system.
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One thing that I love about the systems and habits approach to improvement is the idea that you can start small. In fact, you can start microscopic. It doesn’t have to be some major overhaul.
This makes it easier to get started. We can come up with an idea and implement it right away. We can start small, so we don’t need willpower or motivation to get it going.
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If you want to improve, you must learn how to take ownership. It sounds easy. It seems like we already take ownership of our lives.
But if we look closely, we see that this isn’t the case. Instead, we often find someone else to blame. We find a scapegoat.
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