How to Build Systems to Achieve Success

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1:41Welcome to today's episode of the Mindset Mentor Podcast. I am your host, Rob Dial. If you have not yet done so, hit that subscribe button so you never miss another podcast episode because I put out episodes four times a week to help you learn and grow and improve yourself because if you can improve yourself, you can improve your life. So if that's something that you wanna do, come along on this journey with us. Today, I'm gonna be talking about how to build systems in your life to actually achieve success because if you're relying on motivation, willpower, or self-discipline to reach your next level in life, you're already probably in trouble.

2:19Success is a marathon. on. It takes a long time for you to become successful. And if you don't build systems that carry you through the days when you don't feel like showing up or when you fall off, you will mess up. And I'm sure you've done it over and over and over again in your life. What I have found is that the top performers in the world, they're not better than you. They're not smarter than you. They've just become better at removing friction from their lives and automating consistency for what they need to do. And so today I want to show you how to actually build a system in your life that makes success your default so that it's not this constant daily battle of I want to do it, but I'm not doing it.

3:01It's just, hey, I'm waking up and I'm taking action at the life I want to create. Because think about this for a second. Is your life, when you look around, is it built to support the person that you're trying to become? Is it built to support the life that you're trying to actually grow into? For most people, that answer is no. And it's not because they're lazy or because they're stupid or because they're undisciplined. It's because of the fact that they haven't built systems to support who they're trying to become. So, you know, you need to stop like trying harder. And what you need to do is go, okay, I'm not gonna try harder.

3:37I'm gonna start building smarter. Like I'm gonna build systems to help me achieve the success that I want. So that you don't rely on motivation or hustle or vision boards or any of that stuff. You just have a system that you've built and you just gotta follow the system. The way I like to think of a system is it's like, it's like the scaffolding that holds up your habits. They are unsexy, but they are a powerful structure that stops you from sabotaging yourself over and over and over again. Like we all do. And so what I have found is that the most successful people in the world do this. And what they do is they build a life that supports what they're trying to build.

4:20Right. And so let's talk about it and dive into it. Right. There's a pattern that I see all of the time with people, especially when it's like New Year's resolutions and right around January. Most people, they'll set a goal, they'll get really excited about the goal, and then they'll have a few good days, maybe even a good week or two. And then life happens. And I hear it all of the time, over and over and over again. I'm really good at starting. I'm really terrible at following through. I'm really good at starting. I'm really terrible at following through. Because life happens. You know, you're tired, and sometimes you're overwhelmed, and sometimes you're just not feeling it.

5:00And so you end up missing a day. And because you just missed a day, it makes it easier to miss the next day. And now you're going back into old patterns. And then you can, if you're like most people, you can cue in the guilt and the shame and the telling yourself that you're worthless or that you're never going to change, whatever it might be. Does that sound familiar? Like I always hear like, oh, like, you know, I worked out for 17 days in a row and then I missed one day. and then I never went back to working out again. And I was like, well, what happened in that one day? Like, oh, well, I didn't go to the gym and da, da, da.

5:36I said, okay, but what did you tell yourself about yourself? Well, I told myself I'm a loser. I'm never gonna, I always mess up. This happens to me every time, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, hold on. So you worked out 17 days in a row and then you guilted yourself and shamed yourself for missing one day instead of celebrating the fact that you went 17 days in a row. And they're like, oh yeah, I guess I did do that. And so it tends to be a typical cycle. And so does that sound familiar for you? If it does, I want you to realize that you're not the problem here in most cases. Your system is the problem.

6:11It's like you've been trying to reach the top floor of success in your life without building a staircase at all. Without a system, your goals are just being run by emotions and old patterns and those are unreliable. So you need to build something stronger and that's where you really need some structure in your life. So let me show you some examples, right? Because the system is how you achieve a goal. It's not just what the goal is. And so I'll give you a couple of examples of what that might be like. Let's say that you want to work out. Okay, well, maybe your goal is to work out consistently and to lose 10 pounds or to gain five pounds of muscle or whatever it might be.

6:50Well, you need to build a workout system if that's the case. What could that look like? Well, maybe what you do is you decide that you're going to schedule workouts three days a week and you're gonna put them in your calendar for 60 minutes. And then part of that system is, let's say it's Monday night and Wednesday night and Friday. Monday, Wednesday and Friday is when you work out, right? Well, then the night before, your system is going to be that you're always going to pack your gym clothes the night before. And then you know that your specific workout plan before you even wake up that morning.

7:25So it might be like Monday is push day, Wednesday is pull day, and Friday is legs day. And so you've already got it figured out. So you don't have to make decisions. It's just like something that you run with, right? And if you're short on time because life happens, well, then we're going to have something where if shit hits the fan, we're going to default to this thing. And so maybe if you're short on the, you know, something goes crazy, when your kids get sick, things go awry, you're going to default to say a 10 minute YouTube body weight session. And you're going to have it already planned and saved so that if it ever does happen, which it will happen, life gets crazy.

8:04This is my 10 minute workout to make sure that I get it done. You see what I mean? It's in your calendar. You've got your gym clothes out. You have your specific workout plans figured out. And if shit hits the fan, I've already got a plan. That is what a workout system looks like versus like, I'm just gonna figure it out today. You know, you need a system, right? So let's say you want to eat better. Maybe eating healthier is a system that you want to create. And we will be right back. Before IM8, I had way too many things in my routine. Different supplements, powders, vitamins, and honestly, it was hard to stay consistent.

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11:46And you're going to go to the grocery store every Sunday at 3 PM. And that's just in your schedule. And you're going to create three like go-to healthy meals that are just on repeat for busy nights so that you don't have to think, you don't default to fast food or you don't default to chips or anything like that. You've just got your three go-tos that you go to on the busy nights. And then maybe you say two nights a week, I'm going to use a meal delivery service like DoorDash once or twice a week so I can just remove decision fatigue. and you know what place you're ordering from, you know exactly what you're gonna be ordering, you know that those things are healthy and now you have created a system for you to be able to eat healthier.

12:29Okay, let's say that you wanna get better at focusing and like really get better at being productive. Well, then you're going to create a deep work system and so that would be 90 minute deep work blocks where you've decided your phone is going to be in the other room. You're gonna use the Pomodoro technique which is 25 minutes on, five minutes off with one task only. And you're going to do it three times in a row, which makes 90 minutes. You're going to make sure that you do this, let's say, Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 1130, right? And you're going to move all of your meetings that you normally have in the morning to your afternoons.

13:11And in order to get yourself in the mental prep and to get yourself ready, you're going to have some sort of like focus ritual. You're going to do breathing or you have a specific playlist or you're going to have your headphones. And so you're developing a system, not just like I want 90 minutes of deep work. You see, that's why I mean it's like the whole system is like the scaffolding that holds it all together. So that makes it easier for you to take action. And then let me give you, let me give you one more because I know people want to get better with money, right? Let's create a finance system.

13:38Let's say that your goal is to manage your money and not be overwhelmed by all of it. And so the system is not like, I want to save more money. That's just a goal. The system is, I'm going to set a weekly money review where I'm gonna check my bank account, I'm gonna check my investments. That's gonna be the last thing I do on Friday. So it's Friday at 4.30 p.m. I'm going to use auto transfers for my savings. So every week, I'm gonna have$50 for my paycheck. You know, I get paid every single week. So as soon as my paycheck hits, I'm going to put$50 into a separate savings account that I will never touch.

14:17And then maybe you figure out how you're going to invest it each month. And then you're going to track your expenses every Sunday for 15 minutes. And there's many apps now that you can just literally plug up your bank account to an app. And it shows you exactly where you're spending money and where you need to cut back. Like it's so much easier now you can use this. And so you can use that one app to keep visibility over it. And so you see, it's like the goal is to save and to invest more money, but you're building a system, a framework around it, the scaffolding to help you get it done. The reason why systems work is because first off, it removes decisions fatigue.

14:51Like if you have to make a decision, a lot of times people are just like, I'd rather sit on the couch and do nothing. And so it builds habits into your existing routines. It makes it easier on you so that you don't always have to like rely on willpower. And then it turns your goals in from like a wish. oh, I wish I could do this to like a workflow. Like you're creating an actual workflow to achieve your goals. And it's in your calendar. Like if it's not scheduled or if it's not tracked or it's not supported in some sort of way, it's not a system. It's really a hope more than anything else. And so that way you don't sabotage yourself.

15:27Like you just take action because we all sabotage ourselves. Like there's a few different ways I see people sabotage themselves. Like first way is they have like had this all or nothing like rule that they've created. Like I have to be perfect. That's stupid. You're not going to be perfect. And so what you're doing in this system is you're creating, like you're building a minimum viable product, like a minimum viable version into your system. Like you can't do a, like I said, a few minutes ago, you can't do a full 60 minute workout. Well, your system includes a 10 minute body weight backup plan.

15:57Your system should always have some sort of backup plan built into it so that you're defaulting to something, not nothing. So that's like the first way people usually self-sabotage. Second way is like people are sitting around like waiting to be motivated. I'll do it when I'm feeling inspired or when I feel excited. The fix for that is like you kind of like have a trigger based system that you've built. So you don't wait until you feel like it. You just get it done. Like you don't you don't wait until you feel like brushing your teeth. You just do it because it's part of your morning flow. And so can you get everything to be like that?

16:33Like use consistent triggers like right after breakfast. I do this. When I make my morning coffee, I do this right after work. I do this when I get home I do this and you're anchoring all of these habits to specific things that are already happening in your life And then the third thing that I see a lot of times is people are just like oh Like a huge trap is like i'll just remember it No Please don't just think you're going to remember it because systems the reason why they work so well is because they live outside of your brain You know, so you can use a calendar a habit tracker a recurring reminder accountability buddy a visual checklist.

17:08Like if it's not visible and you don't see it multiple times a day in your external world, it's very easily forgettable, okay? And so if you want to achieve and start to build out your own systems, let me give you the three simple S's for building a goal-hitting system, right? So that you can actually build on today, okay? The first thing is make it simple. Make it so easy that tired you or grumpy you can still follow it, right? Make it, if you don't have time, make it a five minute version of your, your habit, have some sort of backup that you can always go to, right? Like no setup required clear next step.

17:46Like, okay, I didn't do this. Like I said, you know, 60 minutes, I don't have it to work out. I've got, I've already got a 10 minute body weight workout saved. I've got 10 minutes right now. Let me take action on it. The key is that you design it for like, you don't design it for your best day. Like, oh, if everything was perfect, I'll do like, you just design it for your average day and you keep it as simple as you possibly can. The second thing that will really help you is it needs to be scheduled. Like random goals get random results. So if you put it in your calendar and you pair it with a trigger and you attach it to some sort of existing routine, it's more likely to be done.

18:21And so an example could be like, I'm going to, if I, instead of going, Hey, I want to write an entire book. I'll just say, Hey, I want to write a hundred words right after I get my morning coffee. I want to meditate every day right after I get my morning water. I want to call 10 leads before I check my email, right? If it's not in your calendar, it's not planned, it probably doesn't exist. So that's the second thing. And the third S that you want is you want it to be supported. Like you want reinforcement around you. So like ask yourself, who knows about this goal? Like what tools can remind me of it?

18:56What reward or feedback system do I have or can I build? and it could look like, you know, a Monday check-in with a friend who's also trying to work out more. It could be something like using an app like Streaks to track yourself. It could be putting Post-it notes on your mirror so that you see it everywhere, right? You're more likely to succeed when you build an environment that makes your success easier, but also visual as well so that you can't forget about it, right? And now what happens when you screw up? Because you will screw up. I promise you this, you're not going to be perfect. But the difference is now your system has a reset button in some sort of way.

19:38And so like if you miss a workout, cool, no big deal. But your system includes a never miss twice rule. If you skip a writing session because something happens, your system includes a five minute like recovery prompts tomorrow. If you, you know, go off track for a week, which sometimes happens to all of us, your system includes a Sunday night review that's in your schedule. And so what happens with these is you build it so that success becomes easier and so that failure is not final. Like messing up is actually part of the system. You will mess up. So just plan ahead on what you're going to do next time that you do mess up.

20:18And so this is what the point of systems are, is to build a actual framework and scaffolding so that achieving your goals actually becomes easier. And as I said in the very beginning. This is what I have seen from the most successful people in the world. It's not that they're smarter. It's not that they work harder. It's that they have built systems to actually make achieving their goals easier. And that is what I want you to do. That's what I got for you for today's episode. If you love this episode, please share it on your Instagram stories. Tag me in it, Rob Dial, Jr., R-O-B-D-I-A-L-J-R. And if you're out there and you want to learn more about coaching with me outside this podcast, you can go to coachwithrob.com.

20:55Once again, coachwithrob.com. And with that, I'm gonna leave you the same way I leave you every single episode. Make it your mission to make somebody else's day better. I appreciate you and I hope you have an amazing day. Introducing Fidelity Trader Plus, the next generation of advanced trading from Fidelity. Customize your tools and charts and access them seamlessly across desktop, web, and mobile. For faster trades, anywhere you go. Try the all new Fidelity Trader Plus. Learn more about our most powerful trading platform yet at fidelity.com slash trader plus. Investing involves risk, including risk of loss.

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