Having coached people for the past 18 years toward their healthiest, fittest selves made one thing clear to me:
We don’t rise to the level of our aspirations.
Or even our identities.
That’s the story we tell ourselves after the fact, "That's just not who I am"
In reality, we fall to the level of the systems we build.
And then those systems quietly shape our beliefs about who we think we are.
(The brain hates incoherence. It will always build a neat story to explain why you do what you do.)
Seth Godin writes,
“Culture is the story people tell about why things work the way they work. Systems are why things actually work the way they work.”
Over the past week I’ve been moving from place to place.
Onboarding new clients.
Figuring out new systems in my business.
And still,
Eating well.
Exercising.
Meditating every morning.
Writing every single day this very blog.
You could say it’s because I consider myself that kind of person.
Or…
Is it because when I plan my day, I design systems, now habits, that make these things inevitable?
Yes, what I choose to do is influenced by my values, priorities, goals, and who I think I am.
But the reason these behaviors persist isn’t willpower or identity.
It’s the systems I’ve built, and rebuilt, every day.
In 18 years, that I've worked with clients, who hire me to "get consistent" with things they find challenging.
Almost never I work trying to change the client.
But almost always I work helping client to design the soil for their new habits to grow🌱
We change the environment, the triggers, the defaults, their daily rhythms, things that are easy, visible and rewarding.
And then, almost as a side effect, their thinking shifts.
Their identity updates.
Their goals start sticking.
Over to you, dear reader,
Where are you trying to change yourself…
when a smarter system design would quietly do the work for you?
PS Do you know what researchers found to be the easiest way to change old habits, get unstuck and out of your old rut? Moving to a new place with new environment, with a completely different system that you redesign.
