There’s this quote by James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits, that I’ve been mulling over for the last couple of days. Now that we are heading into November and December, a lot of us have already started planning for 2023 and are looking at our whole year ahead. We all come into the new year super excited, so I thought it would be a great idea to take a look at the way James Clear looks at creating habits and goals.
“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. … Your goal is your desired outcome. Your system is the collection of daily habits that will get you there.”—James Clear
When it comes to that, you start looking at not only your business but also at life that way. Pause and ask yourself, “Is there a system that I have in the evening? Is there a system that I have in the morning? What happens when I encounter somebody that gets angry at me? What happens if my business goes a certain way?”
“What is the system or habits that I fall into?”
And a lot of us don’t take the time to reflect back and say, “This is how I’m gonna respond to my business not getting to where it needs to be by month two or three.” Instead, we panic. We think, “Maybe this isn’t for us.”
So, what I want you to do is to focus on the habits that will allow you to break through to the next level, and the habits that help you take a look at the world like this: When crap happens to you—because it is going to happen—take a look at it as an opportunity instead. An opportunity to grow and ask yourself, “What am I missing here?”
Because, yes, when crappy situations come our way, we get angry or sad—I get it. We all share those emotions. But what systems do you have in place that help you see your situation from a different perspective?
Do you need to take a walk? Maybe when you take a run? Do you need to pause and read, or do you need to talk it out and call somebody? What things do you do to help you shift the way you look at things and make you feel good enough to think clearly about “What’s next? How do I turn this around?”
How do you function in such a way that you can get back to a place where you can find the opportunities better instead of looking at them as a problem?
We all need systems for both our personal and professional lives.
