How To Build And Maintain Intrinsic Systems For Growth
Building systems to enforce discipline, growth and adherance to goals
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GM, sorry for the absence. I fell sick while enjoying Disneyland Orlando, and took some time to recover. Back in Singapore, thoroughly enjoyed my America trip + the people I met in NFTNYC, really hope I can go again. Also, wishing that one day I'll be able to work in NYC. Anyways, to the article.
The Greatness Of Systemic Habits
The ocean is just many, many incremental drops of water pooled together. Does the water droplet have a goal of forming an ocean over millions of years? No. It just drips, and across aeons, an ocean is formed.
Similarly, it's hard for us to embark on a journey with the endpoint in mind. We all have an abstract sense of the goal, but it isn't easy to maintain motivation when we see how far we are from the top. We thus frame it differently - breaking down our goal into bite-sized portions, putting small bits of effort daily & consistently, Over time our efforts pile on and we start to see results.
Systems are important to this end. It keeps us disciplined even on our down days and forces us to work on ourselves despite not wanting to. I've built a system to gym every 2 days from 6 - 7pm, and it has worked. On days when I feel like taking a break, I still find myself going to the gym.
It's important to keep in mind that there's no enforcer for our systems - as an adult, no one punishes us for not making our bed, cleaning our room, or doing the dishes. But when we say yes to people's requests, we do your damnest to not let them down. So when we say yes to our own goals - why would we want to let ourselves down? Systems create an environment where we force ourselves to pursue our goals, by virtue of knowing that we owe it to ourselves to at least try.
Going About Creating Systems
It's a bear market, so it's a great time to start building your personal systems. Take note, these systems are great in trading as well, e.g Taking 10% of profit every time price moves up ~15%. But that's for another time.
Don't worry, creating systems isn't hard - you're basically creating daily / weekly habits that you want to maintain over the span of time. The first step to take is to understand what sort of goals you would like to achieve. I've written about this before, but really take the time to think of the goals you would like to achieve.
One goal I have is to be conversational in Japanese. And then with the goal in mind, take the bite-sized version of it - in this case, it would be to learn a bit of Japanese everyday. It's even better if you give specifics, e.g ten new words a day.
The last step is to track this habit, thus creating a system. Personally, I use the app called Habit. It's simple, easy to use and has a clean interface. I don't like anything too cluttered - having too much information on the screen often leads to less efficacy.
Alternatively, you can use excel sheets to track your habits. There are tons of templates online, but really you just need to get in there and start doing. Start small - don't try to build 10 habits at once. Do what I do - I started with "learning one level of Japanese in my app" on a day-to-day basis, and slowly started adding more things, like reading a book for 10 minutes, and self-learning something I don't know for 1 hour a day.
Now, go out there and be the best version of yourself! Even if no one else believes in you, know that I do. What will you be achieving today? Feel free to let
-Kyle
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