Build Systems for Your Future Self

(Transcript edited for clarity.)

Hi, I'm Wes. Welcome to Build Systems for Your Future Self.

This is what I've been working on for years: trying to build systems that help me immediately, but also in the future as I go on and on.

Many of the systems I have in place right now are systems that I've built in the past several years that continue to help me day by day.

So that's the goal today: to help you figure out at least one system that you can start putting in place today that's going to help your future self.

Keep that in mind.

Your future self is going to live with every decision you make today, whether it's good or bad.

All decisions you make have positive or negative consequences.

So what we try to do is make decisions that have long-term positive consequences.

But no matter what the consequences are, your future self is going to have to live with the decisions you make today.

Your future self is going to live with the decisions and systems you build today.

Every good system makes tomorrow a little easier, and every poor system makes tomorrow a little more difficult.

You're consistently sending either help or problems to your future self.

So it's important to create good systems that are going to help you now and in the future.

Often we forget - even I forget, and sometimes I forget when I'm teaching - and I just say we need to build systems.

No, we need to create good systems.

Because a bad system works just the same as a good system, except it takes you in the opposite direction.

If you make a good system, it continues to provide benefits throughout your future.

If you create a poor system, it's going to create poor situations continuously into your future unless you change something.

Now, why is this important?

There's a word here: compounds.

I had a question about this recently on a video: What does compound mean?

Usually, compound or compounding is thought of with interest.

For example, you make an investment, the investment earns interest, and then you start earning interest on the original investment and interest on the interest.

That's compounding.

That's what compound means.

But when you put good systems in place, you also benefit from compounding.

If you put a system in place today that helps you every week of your life, then you benefit now, but you also benefit a week from now and a year from now. You continue to benefit.

That's not compounding yet.

Here's where the compounding comes into place.

You create one system today that's going to help you every week for the rest of your life.

Then next week, you create another system that's going to help you every week or every day for the rest of your life.

Then you have two systems that you've put in place that continuously help you.

Your results - and we talk loosely about success most of the time here - start compounding.

Your success systems start compounding and helping you accelerate faster toward the success you want the more good systems you put in place.

That's where the compounding comes into place.

So remember that.

Not only does life compound, but your success systems compound also.

Small preparations and small good systems can help you remove future stress.

In other words, build once, benefit forever - or at least build once and benefit for a long time.

One thing I always try to remember to talk about is that when you create systems, you also need to continuously evaluate the systems.

I've had good systems that I put into place and that helped me a lot for a long time.

But then something changed.

Through evaluation, I either adjusted the system to make it work better, or I replaced the system if it wasn't working as well as I'd hoped or if it stopped working as well as it had been.

That's part of what Your Life Systems is about.

Every time you create systems, they're supposed to help you.

Hopefully, they're going to help you in the future, and your future self will thank you for creating them, using them, and putting them in place.

But a big part of successful systems in your life is evaluating them on a periodic basis so you can adjust them, replace them, tweak them, whatever.

So it's really important to start.

I talk about that often.

You can think about systems. You can think about things to improve your life or bring you closer to success.

But you need to get started.

Some people I work with are concerned they're going to get it wrong.

They're going to start, but they're going to start doing it wrong.

They're going to put the wrong system in place.

Well, a good system is better than a poor system.

But if you have a poor system in place and you start tracking your results and evaluating it, then you adjust.

If you never start, if you never put a system in place to see if it can continue to help you and your future self, then you're never going to find out if it's going to help.

So don't avoid doing it.

Don't keep from putting a system in place because you're afraid you're going to mess up.

Think it through.

Try to design the system as well as you can.

Then get started, evaluate, and see how it works.

Now, I'm going to give you an example of this.

Your Life Systems.

This video is really the core of Your Life Systems.

The videos I record and share with you here and elsewhere, including streaming, are the core.

But from these videos, there's an entire publishing operation.

I call it a publishing empire because that's what I'm building.

I want to build what would be considered a publishing empire.

You might not consider it that.

You might consider, "Hey, this guy puts stuff up on YouTube."

Doesn't matter.

As long as it helps you, that's all that matters.

But this publishing empire I'm building has systems in place so I don't have to keep doing the same thing over and over and over.

In other words, I've put systems in place to help my future self.

Here's an example of everything that happens once I put a video up.

First of all, I have to research the video.

I have to make notes to make sure I don't forget to tell you something important.

I don't work off a script, but I work from what I call an index card.

They're like one word or one line to keep me on track, to make sure I don't forget to give you something important that can help you.

So there's that process.

Then there's the filming process.

I've put a system in place for the filming process.

The camera, the lights, everything - same place, every time.

So I don't have to think about it.

I know where everything goes.

I know the settings I need.

I know where I'm going to be, etc.

That's a system in place so I don't have to think about it.

Then, once it gets edited, I have someone edit the video, create the thumbnails, put it up, and schedule it.

When it launches, I have a system in place and I come up with articles.

So I post articles a couple of different places based on the subject of the video.

I also post to LinkedIn.

I have a short blurb on LinkedIn that's tied to the video and other things.

The point is, this is all a system that I don't have to think about every time.

From the start to the end, I decide what I'm going to talk about.

I make out my index card so I stay on point, or if I get off track, I can get back on track.

The camera recording system is always the same.

Then once it goes live, the publishing process goes into place.

So this video influences close to a dozen different things, and all that's in place so I don't have to think about doing it over and over again.

Everything I'm trying to get done, I wouldn't be able to do if I didn't have a system in place that simplifies it for me.

I have an entire workflow written out, and I know exactly what happens when.

That's just an example.

That's a fairly complicated example because this is going out and influencing up to a dozen different things at one time for every video.

You don't have to start with anything that complicated.

The truth is, if I'd started trying to accomplish this thing that does a dozen different things before I got good at creating systems to help my future self, I'd have probably messed it up.

I've had a lot of experience.

Here's how it started.

I created a system to come up with the topics first.

Then I created a system to come up with what I call my index cards.

Then I added the filming setup.

I added each step one at a time.

Now it's a whole-page, multi-step system that's in place.

What you need to do is start with the first step.

Whatever it is, start with the first step.

What would make tomorrow easier for you that you can do today?

What's one simple system you could put in place that your future self would thank you for?

What could you do today to make things easier, not only tomorrow, but next week and next year?

You need to stop solving the same problems repeatedly.

That's what I've tried to do.

Every time I have to solve the same problem two or three or more times, I try to stop and say, "What can I do so I can solve this once and don't have to solve it again?"

Build systems that remove future decisions, like I told you about the recording setup.

I figured out the right lighting and where to put the camera one time, so I don't ever have to think about it again.

I just have to put it in the right place.

Your future self is your most important customer.

You are the core of whatever you're trying to do in your life.

The easier you can make it on yourself in the future, the more successful you're going to be.

Every system that you work on and master today is an investment in tomorrow.

Remember, I started explaining about compounding.

The way compounding works in money is the same idea.

Every system you put in place is an investment in your future.

What can you build today that helps you tomorrow?

That's really the key.

So that's my challenge to you.

What's one thing you can build today that can help you tomorrow and in the future?

Then build it and put it into place.

You build your future by what you repeatedly do today.

Do something today that your future self will thank you for.

In closing, you don't have to make tomorrow harder than it needs to be.

You can build systems today that make your life better tomorrow.

Good luck.

Thanks for watching.

Subscribe. This is Your Life Systems. I'm Wes.

What's Next?

·        Notice one problem or decision you've had to solve repeatedly.

·        Ask what part of that problem could become a repeatable system.

·        Build the simplest useful version of that system today.

·        Use it long enough to see whether it actually makes the next occurrence easier.

·        Evaluate and adjust instead of assuming the first version has to be perfect.

·        Once it works, look for the next repeated problem you can solve once instead of over and over.

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