Why Good Systems Create Freedom

(Transcript edited for clarity.)

Hi, I'm Wes. Welcome to Why Good Systems Create Freedom.

As I've built systems throughout my life and continued to work toward what I mostly think of as success, I've realized something.

That's why I build systems: it's the constant search for success, or more success, and the journey toward what I want.

The more I've done this, the more I've come to realize that true success to me is directly linked to freedom - a lot of different types of freedom.

The freedoms I think about and talk about most are financial freedom, time freedom, and then health freedom.

But really, most of the things I talk about here on Your Life Systems deal with either financial freedom or time freedom.

I used to always focus on financial freedom.

There's a book with a title that's something like, The Secret to Money Is Having Some.

There's a lot of truth to that.

If you're struggling financially, your mind wants to focus more on financial freedom because that's what you're trying to reach.

But once you reach a certain point with your financial situation, you start wondering about the freedom of time.

The older I get, the more important time freedom is to me.

So we're going to talk a little bit about time freedom as we go through this.

But this can work with either kind of freedom or any kind of freedom you're working toward.

So again: Why Good Systems Create Freedom.

I'm going to lead with a question here.

What if the freedom you're looking for actually comes from better systems?

What if the freedom you're actually looking for comes from creating better systems?

What I've found is that once I found the right systems and put the right systems into place, they automatically helped me get closer to the freedom I was chasing.

Remember what I started with.

A lot of times, those freedoms were things I originally thought of as chasing success or working toward success.

Now, the more I work on creating systems and putting systems in place in my life, the more I realize I'm working toward freedom instead of success.

Or another way to look at it is that true success to me is more freedom than anything else.

When I say 'to me,' I emphasize that because it's super important here.

Any type of system you're working on, creating, or framework you want to put in your life - you get to choose.

It's up to you what success looks like.

Maybe success to you looks completely different than it does to me.

That's the wonderful thing about this.

The systems and frameworks I give you, or the systems I explain that I use, can be used or adapted to work toward the success, freedom, or whatever it means to you.

You get to choose, just like I did.

I also think that the longer I go, the more systems I put into place, and the older I get, my definition of success changes some.

I think age can come into play there too.

I'm in my middle 50s as I'm recording this, so there are a lot of things different in my life - the way I think, the things I know, the things I've done, my experiences - compared with when I was 25, 35, or even 45.

I think that plays into it too.

Before we go on about why good systems create freedom, I want to make sure I explain clearly that this is a personal choice.

Don't let anyone else, including me, tell you what your success should look like or what freedom for you should look like.

You decide intentionally.

Then you intentionally design, create, and adapt systems that get you closer to where you want to be.

That's what I've done for decades now: consistently trying to find, implement, improve, and adapt systems to lead me closer to where I wanted to be.

It's okay if you get someplace you thought you wanted to be and realize that wasn't where you wanted to be - it was something else.

I think that's natural.

I know it's happened to me more than once, so I don't think that's a problem. I think that's a feature.

I've also heard advice that you can't achieve success, you have to enjoy the journey to success.

There might be something to that.

It's a little bit too deep for me, maybe, because I do have some definite descriptions of success.

I have reached definite places of success in my life.

I enjoyed the journeys, and I still enjoy the journey.

But I think if you're not careful and you believe that you can't reach success, then you'll never reach success.

I think there's a danger in believing you have to enjoy the journey because you can never reach success.

I feel that I've reached success many times in my life.

I've also come up short in areas too.

But to me, it has to be real to keep me going.

It's part of my motivation.

Anyway, back to the question I started with: What if the freedom you're looking for is actually coming from better systems?

Let's back up a little from that.

The first thing is to define what freedom means to you.

What does freedom mean?

What do you want?

What freedom are you chasing?

It doesn't have to be one I've mentioned.

It can be a different type.

But financial freedom and time freedom are the two I've worked toward most, so they're the ones I use most in examples and talk about most.

They're also what most of my systems can be used for.

Let's talk about financial freedom.

Financial freedom is basically the removal of worry about money in the future.

It can be short term, long term, whatever.

People often think, 'If I only had a million dollars or ten million dollars, I'd be set for life.'

While that might be true, the fact is that no matter how much money you have, there are things that could happen that could make that money worthless.

If you don't believe me, do a little checking of world news and world history.

You don't even have to go back that far.

There are countries that have completely devalued their currency overnight.

So let's say you've got 10 million U.S. dollars.

You probably don't have it all in cash anyway, but whether you do or not, that could become worthless overnight.

So are you ever completely financially free?

Do you ever have complete financial freedom?

I don't know.

That's not what this is about, and I'm not saying you shouldn't work toward financial freedom.

When I say financial freedom, I mean you don't have to worry so much about money for some part of the future.

That could be the next week, the next month, or the next year.

That's a type of financial freedom.

There's nothing wrong with wherever you are right now in that.

I've had times in my life where not having to worry about money for the next half hour would have been great.

That would have been a break.

Not having to worry about how the bill that comes due tomorrow is going to get paid.

Sometimes it's financial freedom for the week.

The other type is time freedom.

What if the time freedom you're looking for actually comes from different systems?

Sometimes I talk about priorities and getting your priorities straight so you work on the things that are most important to you first.

That's the type of thing you can use systems for to work on time freedom.

Time freedom to me - and I haven't always had this - is that I get to choose what I work on and, most of the time, what I do.

I didn't wake up one day and suddenly become able to do whatever I wanted with my time.

I still have responsibilities, but I get to choose how I spend most of my time and choose what I work on.

Let's go over some quick points here.

Most people think systems limit freedom, but if you create and use the right systems, they actually create more freedom.

The system I use to schedule my time is an example.

I have a very strict system that I use.

Because I use it strictly and have very particular rules for myself, it makes sure I work on the things that are my highest priorities and block out time for the things that are my highest priorities.

That's a type of time freedom because it means I intentionally choose what I'm using my time for.

The right systems remove unnecessary decisions so you have more energy for the things that matter.

Freedom isn't the absence of structure.

It's the result of good structure.

Let me say that one again because it's important.

Freedom isn't the absence of structure.

It's the result of good structure.

I'm talking about time freedom a lot here.

I mentioned the time system I use and how I use it very strictly.

I have very strict personal rules about it, and part of that is that I schedule my priorities.

I make sure those get worked on first.

Now, who gets to choose the priorities?

I get to choose my priorities, just like you get to choose your priorities.

Maybe one of my priorities is that I want to block out X number of hours this week to do something that has nothing to do with work, making money, chasing success, or anything else.

I have the freedom to block that time out.

If I choose to block it out first before any of my other responsibilities, that's what I do.

That's the type of freedom the right system can create for you.

So why does this matter?

Chaos steals your freedom.

Systems create margin.

Margin means that, like we were talking about with financial freedom, you have enough extra that you're not worried about it right now.

Time margin means you have your time structured so you have some extra time that you can schedule however you want.

Chaos steals freedom.

Systems create margin.

Less decision fatigue also comes directly from the right systems.

When you lower your decision fatigue, your mind is sharper.

That means you do a better job with the important decisions in your life.

So in closing, the best systems quietly give you more life, not less.

Don't ask whether a system limits your freedom.

Ask what freedom each system you put in your life creates.

Build systems that free you to focus on what matters most.

This all comes down to what matters most to you.

That's the key to this whole thing.

What matters most to you?

What freedoms are you trying to create and implement systems for?

Once you figure that out, it becomes easier to identify the types of systems and frameworks you want to use to reach what you really want.

The type of freedom you really want, whether it's financial freedom, time freedom, health freedom, or some other kind of freedom.

I'm Wes. This is Your Life Systems.

Please like and subscribe.

We'll see you soon.

What's Next?

·        Define the type of freedom you want more of right now.

·        Identify one recurring source of chaos, decision fatigue, or pressure that gets in the way.

·        Ask what system could create more margin around that area.

·        Protect your highest priorities by scheduling or structuring them intentionally.

·        Evaluate the system by the freedom it creates, not only by how much it helps you get done.

·        Adjust the system as your definition of success and freedom changes.

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