Earlier this year, I decided to grow my Twitter/X account. The reason being: 1) I personally benefited so much from tweets/posts from the top talents that I am attached to the platform 2) I want to record my learning publicly. One of the best things coming with aging is bravery.
One thing I gathered, from my feed, is the importance of creating a personal system that works. No matter who they are and what they do, every successful person in the world has one thing in common: they have a reliable system that propels them forward and ensures satisfying results. This system is unique to each individual, but the underlying concept is the same – creating a structure that works. This might include having a daily routine, setting achievable goals, or having a clearly defined set of values to live by. Whatever the system is, it is the key to unlocking the full potential of a person and achieving their goals.
There are normally two challenges to this journey. One is the realization that in order to succeed, first you need to build a working system. The second is putting in the work itself. If you haven’t realized the importance of building a personal system and you stumble upon this post. This is your cue. Now onto the second challenge — How to build a personal system when you realize you need one to succeed.
Craft your daily routine
I listened to a podcast featuring hedge fund manager William England yesterday on multi-strategy hedge funds. In that podcast, he said “How you do anything is how you do everything.” He is right. Every little things matter. Your life is comprised of the years you live, and each year is composed of the days you experience. Every day can be divided into three distinct parts – the morning, the daytime, and the evening. Each of these parts of the day can be further divided into hours, minutes, and seconds. How you spent those seconds, minutes and hours every day will eventually lead you to somewhere or nowhere in life.
Start today. Create a plan, execute on it, reflect on what worked and what didn’t work at the end of day, improve the next day. Rinse and repeat. Know that you can’t copy. Each one of us is unique and have different biological and environmental strengths and limits. What works for others might not apply to you. Also know that it is not static. The only constant in life is change. What worked last year might not work this year. People change, and so must the routines. Be disciplined but also flexible at the same time. Be willing to drop acts that no longer beneficial and replace them with new ones that work. Also be open-minded to expand your identities. To level up often require you to adopt new identities and take new roles.
Put in the work, consistently
One upside of social media these days is that you get to see the “behind the scene” versions of athletes, artists and scientists. So we can see that people who are smarter than us, wealthier than us are still working harder than us. Talent without hard work is talent wasted. If you think you work hard already, just know that someone out there is outworking you.
It’s not enough to simply put in the work, either. You need to be consistent as well. It’s not enough to be productive for just a few days, or even a few weeks. A working personal system emerges only after maintaining that same level of effort and focus over a long period of time. This means that you have to stay disciplined and motivated no matter what.
Find your people
Human beings are social animals. This means that we are primed by our immediate association (people and environment). Countless social and psychological experiments in the past have shown how a change in environment can cause swift and dramatic changes in behavior and psychology. Befriend those who share your ambition and goals. Allocate your time and emotions wisely with your network. And last but not least, do not hesitate to cut off toxic ties.
The power of our environment is paramount. The people we surround ourselves with can have a significant influence on our goals and ambitions. We must be mindful of who we allow into our inner circle and make sure that these people will help us reach our goals, rather than pull us away from them. This is often easier said than done, as our emotions sometimes get in the way.
I wanted to write this post for a really long time now. So glad I am finally getting it off my chest. The delay is due to the fact that I am still in the process of configuring my own personal system.
The reason I have decided to write it anyways is that I realized that I am not alone in this struggle. There are plenty of people out there who are also trying to find the right way to configure their personal systems. To everyone who is still working to create a personal system that works — Remember how far we have come, and also know that we didn’t come this far just to come this far.
Dreamerella 