The Importance of Systems and How to Build Them (Not What You Think )

Before I realized what I’m sharing with you today, every time I wanted to change something in my lifestyle or start a new project, I only set the goal, how to make it happen, and then blamed myself for not following the steps. All that left me with was disappointment and less confidence in my ability to create what I wanted.
Today, I want to share with you how everything changed with ONE straightforward tool: Building systems.

• What building systems means

You can look at any abstract idea you want to give form to as a fragile newborn. Your goal is to grow the baby to be strong and healthy. So what you do is create an environment that supports that goal; you start by making sure all areas of the house are safe, the temperature is right, you buy nutrients and supplies, and get rid of all harmful items.
You don’t just expect the baby to grow healthy on its own, that’d be insane right? You support the process, and the more you succeed at that, the more your end goal is sure to happen. That’s what I mean by building systems.
So building systems is the act of creating a growth container that will make reaching the desired outcome a success with low effort and energy.

• Why building systems matters

Building systems is the act of having a robust structure to hold the change you want to make. They give you freedom, they save you decision-making fatigue and unnecessary struggles, they support your success, and make the process ultra-clear.
You can look at systems as the masculine, and the art you do or the change you desire to make as the feminine. You need both to create anything. Otherwise, it’d be too much of a struggle and no frame to hold you. Nothing happens on its own without those two aspects. Now, you might be asking: So how can that be applied to me achieving a specific goal?

• How to build systems?

First, you define what it is you want to achieve. Then you think like a very lazy person who wants to get it done in the easiest less energy-consuming way.
You figure out little tiny imagechanges you can incorporate to make your life easier and your goal hard to miss. Those changes have to enable you to skip making decisions every time. They need to make you independent of a strong will or big motivation or even the burden of having to choose to do the right thing. As I said, the goal is to make not achieving your intent hard, not the opposite.
Think of automizing habits, things, places around you that will make clear structures in your life you won’t have to check and every day.

You simply change your environment to mirror your ideal. That’s the key.

• Practical examples of how to build systems

Let’s say you want to start eating healthy and stop binge eating. Instead of making it a headache, always having to make the choice between eating the apple instead of the yummy chips in your cabinet, you get rid the of chips in the first place, and have a healthy yummy fruit salad ready in the fridge.
Do you want to get your vitamins daily? Put them right where you can see them every day like in the dining room or next to your laptop, instead of constantly blaming yourself for forgetting to take them.
If you want to start reading, you block a specific time in your day and choose a place where there are 0 distractions, set your phone on airplane mode, and make sure you bring your water next to you. That way, you already have a system in place that makes it super easy for you to read.
Another example is desiring to stop drinking coffee. Building systems in that case is represented in giving away your coffee machine, getting rid of all coffee in your home, and buying different herbal teas you can enjoy when your coffee time comes.

So, make sure there are no holes in your container so that there’s no leaking of energy or clarity by building systems. Also, let me know what you think, and if you have any other tools you use to implement change in your life.