What I Learned From Building Systems for My Life

(Transcript edited for clarity.)

I'm Wes. Welcome to What I Learned From Building Systems for My Life.

I've done 20 videos. This is episode number 21, and the first 20 episodes were pretty much what I considered my foundations.

If you work through those 20, it's going to give you a good foundation for Your Life Systems.

That's not only the name of the business. I purposely chose that because I want to help you create and build systems to make your life better and reach the goals you want in your life.

So I'm kind of summing things up here with that, and I want to read something to you at the end of this that I hope will help you as you continue to create better systems to help you reach the biggest goals in your life.

I spent years building systems in nearly every area of my life.

A lot of them worked. A lot of them didn't.

The important thing is I kept building systems, then I kept the ones that did work and got rid of the ones that didn't work.

The things I've shared with you in the first 20 episodes are the foundations of all the systems I use in my life.

The lessons I learned have changed the way I think about success, productivity, and personal growth.

That's what I hope you're getting out of these.

Everything I teach comes from ideas I've tested in my own life.

These are things I've done. These are systems I've tried and refined, and that's really an important thing here.

Let's say you go through the first 20 episodes and get some ideas.

Maybe you get some things where you're like, "That's not going to work for me," and that's fine.

But hopefully you get at least a few things where you're like, "That might work for me. That might help me with something in my life, or my business, or with my family, whatever."

Then you start trying them and using them.

Then you start refining them, and you figure out how they work best for you.

That's what I've done with the systems in my life.

Every system I've put in and used in my life goes through this process.

I'll find something or think of something. I'll start trying it. I'll see what works and keep it. I'll see, "Oh, this could be better," and I refine it.

That's what I hope you're doing: refining these and testing them in your life, because that's what I've done in mine.

Building better systems changed far more for me than productivity.

It changed the way I live.

Think about that.

When you learn the best systems for your life, it changes the way you live.

It makes your life better.

That's what I'm here for: to help you figure out, implement, tweak, and improve systems to help you improve your life.

I've used this in every big thing I've ever accomplished in my life.

Now, the thing I'm working on most is this business, Your Life Systems, figuring out ways to help you create systems and improve your life.

Even this has been a perfect example of the systems I've put in my life, creating this business and keeping this business going.

One system I use is I'll go into research mode when I get an idea.

I've had this idea for Your Life Systems for quite a while, and I've been researching, writing things down, refining, building huge lists, and then simplifying the list, etc.

Then I get to where I know this can work, and I know everything I have to do.

So that's one system.

That helps me figure out whether to start or not.

I'm like, "This is real. I can help people."

So I started Your Life Systems, and then I was like, "What's next?"

I've already figured it out.

But then I go from that overall big system to a smaller system.

I talk about small steps, small systems, or stacking wins.

So then I went into that type of system that I use in my life.

I said, "Where do I want this to be in five years? Where do I want this to be in a year? Where do I want this to be in a month? Well, what do I have to do this week to get there?"

Then I break it down day by day, and that's what I do.

Every day, I'm like, "What is the small-step system I need to use and put in place today? What's the one to three big things I've got to do today to keep Your Life Systems where it can help more and more people?"

That's what I do.

That's just two systems I use.

I use productivity, or I call it a progress system.

Some people would call it a time management system.

I use that every day to help with Your Life Systems, to help me stay on track, and to help me not forget important things that need to happen.

It doesn't have to be a business.

It can be important things in your life.

All these systems are for you to use.

The foundations of Your Life Systems are for you to find what works for you, start trying it and testing it, then refine it to where you can use it as a system to improve your life.

Small wins create momentum.

I talk about that a lot.

Almost every system I talk about, you need to focus on getting the small wins so you can keep using the system.

It's the momentum.

The momentum is important.

I talk about systems beat willpower, and simplicity beats complexity.

Willpower is great, but if you create a system where you don't have to rely on willpower, you have a better chance of carrying it long term.

Willpower can't last forever.

A good system can.

Simplicity over complexity.

You can have systems that are very complex.

I have some very complex systems, but I didn't start with them that complex.

I started with a simple system, then I added complexity over time as I refined it and it got better and better.

Progress beats perfection.

Over time, I've learned I've got to take action.

That's what I'm telling you to do with these systems and these foundations.

Start making some progress.

Don't worry about getting it perfect.

I didn't wake up one day and have the perfect systems, or have this whole book of systems I use and that I'm teaching and sharing and trying to help you with.

These came over time.

The only way they became better systems is by making progress, taking action, working on the systems, working in the systems, then learning and making the systems better.

So don't worry about perfection at first.

You'll get perfection, or close to it, the more you learn, adapt, and adjust.

Independent thinking matters.

Now, excuse me, I want to talk about that for a minute.

If you listen to me or read my stuff long enough, you'll learn how important I think independent thinking is.

That might sound strange from somebody running a business that's in the business of helping others.

Guru business, sometimes we call it.

You might think that someone who runs a company like Your Life Systems is in the business of telling you what to do.

That's not the business I'm in.

The business I'm in is helping you figure out the things that can help you the best.

That requires independent thought on your part.

Now, most of my systems you could blindly put into place and they would help you because they're good systems.

But remember when I talked about my job being to give you the systems, then you refine them and test them and use them for your life.

That's the independent-thinking part.

I'm not telling you to blindly follow my system.

I'm telling you to use the systems that you think can help you, test them to see how they actually can help you, then improve them so they help you the most.

This is about you.

This is not about me.

It's about me helping you.

That requires independent thinking.

So don't ever lose that.

Don't feel you can't change one of the systems you learned from me.

That's exactly what you're supposed to do.

Use it.

Change it.

Figure out how it works best for you.

Now, that comes to the next point.

Keep improving your systems.

I'm always looking for ways to improve my systems.

I've been creating life systems for decades, and I'm still looking for ways to make my systems better.

So keep improving your systems.

That goes back to the thinking matters.

Independent thinking matters.

Think independently and keep looking for ways to improve the systems.

Use my systems.

Create your own systems.

Make them better.

Keep improving them.

Your life is already running on systems whether you're intentionally putting systems in place or not.

It's going to be better if you intentionally create and use systems.

So your life is already working on systems.

Maybe you could identify some of the systems and start improving them.

The question is whether these systems are helping you become the person you want to be.

In other words, it's back to intentional.

Are these systems intentionally in place by you?

Are you intentionally improving them?

Every area of life can improve by intentionally building better systems.

If you've watched these first 21 videos, you've probably noticed they all point back to the same idea.

I don't believe most people need more motivation, more willpower, or even more information.

I think most of us need better systems.

That's why I created Your Life Systems.

That's what I hope you're getting out of these first 20 episodes.

And I hope you continue to get them out of all the rest of the episodes.

Thank you so much for being with me on this journey.

If you like, please subscribe, like, and I look forward to seeing you in future episodes.

Take care.

What's Next?

·        Identify one system already operating in an important area of your life.

·        Ask whether that system is helping you become the person you want to be.

·        Keep what works and identify one part that could be improved.

·        Make the change small enough to test instead of redesigning everything at once.

·        Use the system long enough to learn from it, then refine it again.

·        Keep building intentionally instead of assuming your current defaults are permanent.

If you found this helpful:

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