Humans crave some sort of organization. It helps us see patterns, promote change, and make sense of the world around us. Organization doesn’t have to be stressful. So much of it comes down to having efficient systems in place so that you can keep your life on a certain trajectory.
Processes, Policies, and Technologies
You’ve heard me talk a lot about business systems. These are a series of processes, policies, and technologies that work together to help feed a business’s goals. What do these look like in practice?
Say you want to increase your retention rate for monthly subscription clients. This is your goal. Your process would include a series of if, then statements. For this example, you could use “If a client is considering canceling their subscription, then I would send this specific sequence.” Your policy is to reinforce the if-then statements with the intent to increase your retention rate. Technology is the tool you use to track how well these processes are working.
Do you see how these feed into each other to create organized systems? It’s pretty apparent that systems like these are 100% necessary in the business world, but what about in our personal lives?
Systems For Personal Growth
The different aspects of your life like business, relationships, and health do not exist on isolated islands. These parts of you feed into each other and contribute to your overall growth. So when you figure out how to use the “Processes, policies, and technologies” system in business, you are then able to apply it to your personal life as well.
Just how business systems aid in reaching business goals, personal growth systems aid in reaching personal goals. It’s the same concept. What does that look like in practice?
Say your goal is to lose weight. The first step is actually to reframe that. When working on goals, instead of focusing on what you want to lose, focus on what you can gain. In this case, it might be energy or strength.
If you want to gain more strength, you would start by measuring your baseline strength levels before starting. This could include things like how long you can hold a plank, how many push-ups you can do, and how many pull-ups you can do. This is where you currently are, but where do you want to be? What is your goal? This one’s easy to track because you can put a tangible number on it.
Now it’s time to create your process. What workouts do you need to do to get from point A to point B? It’s not only knowing what workouts you’re going to do but having the discipline to do them regularly.
Your policy could be “I will do four workouts each week and communicate my progress to my coach each week.” This is something that I actually do. I integrate technology by using an app to record my progress that my coach can see. We also use tools like phone conversations and Zoom meetings.
Creating Momentum
Do you see the parallels between your business systems and personal growth systems? The last example was a whole system aligned with me wanting to increase my strength. But it doesn’t have to stop there. You can do this with money, relationships, community goals, and so much more. Personally, I use this system to read more, increase my water intake, and reach my daily walking goals.
The coolest thing about this system is that it feeds itself. Tracking your journey creates progress, progress creates confidence, and confidence creates momentum. Momentum then becomes energy in motion. It makes you want to do more of what you’re doing. To make more progress. To reach more goals. And to have confidence in the systems that make it possible.
Another benefit about this system is that the more comfortable you get using it, the more natural it becomes to apply it to every area of your life that you want to see growth in. Before long, you’ll see opportunities popping up all over the place. You’ll begin to notice places where you can implement processes and policies, and what sort of technologies will help you track them.
It may seem a bit overwhelming at first to implement a new organizational system, but in the long run, it makes your life way easier. They help keep you accountable so that you can live up to whatever standards you’ve set for yourself. Systems also help relieve stress and give you more energy so that you can reach your goals and live your life to the fullest.
Ready to make a change? You can change my accountability group. Here, everyone keeps scores of their tiny actions daily, TADS, which are tracked on a scoreboard. That turns into agame. This allows us to see positive changes in our bodies, minds, and businesses thanks to the systems we’ve put in place.
