The Systems you have will Determine your Future

In this context, I refer to system as a set of actions, habits, thought patterns, or principles you use to determine your actions.

Simple systems like, having a writing plan, going to the gym a certain number of times per week, and doing serious language learning practice consistently over long periods of time will result in greater skills, greater career progression, etc.

Learning x new skill will result in better career aims or etc.

Some systems I have are doing 1 hour of writing daily using a writing schedule, consistently studying for certifications, doing research consistently on things that interest me, and reading (not as frequently as I’d like however).

If you can get yourself to do this skill 3 times a week for 3 months, or any other reasonable amount of time, and you enjoy it, this is a lot more practical than saying “I’ll play the guitar 7 days a week for 30 minutes.”

While you would generally be better off doing a musical instrument every day, you will also likely get tired of doing it every day, and a more flexible schedule might do better.

Your schedule should be crafted around your life and who you are as a person.

It should be the least taxing and most flexible yet consistent schedule possible, as long as you actually do it.

A new system I want to pick up is reading Latin every day.

I have had a small amount of training and I can pick out words and phrases now.

I am reading the Vulgate with the goal of one time daily, with one section of the Bible daily, with the goal of reading Latin some time in the future.

After Latin, I will try Greek and then maybe Hebrew.

For me, I want to be a college professor as well as get into a top grad school for a MDiv program and learning foreign languages is known as the best way to differentiate yourself.

I want to identify things that will help me in the future, and just start doing them, rather than spending all my time on my phone.

I encourage you to make up your own systems that work for you rather than trying to take someone else’s approach to habits and trying to apply them to yourself.

I think you will have much better results if you make up your own systems, as this has worked for me.

As we age, our outcomes in life are determined more or less by our habits.

What you spend time doing, how efficient you are at doing advanced tasks, these will basically determine your success in life.

If you can take the time to learn and grow and practice, you should eventually learn skills and you will be better for it.

Generally failure comes from not being willing to take the time to study and put in the effort, on the micro level.

Some skills like athletics at the pro level are different, and you need to be the best, but for the vast majority of skills you aren’t in direct competition with other people, the world can support one more coder who knows what they are doing, or one artist who really knows what they are doing (if you are good enough).

One last thing, do what you love.

You’ll be much more likely to stick with what you want to do if you love the task of doing it.

The more hours you spend doing it, generally the better at it you’ll be, and over a sustained period this becomes a hobby or skill.

Once you have that longer term skill, it become easier to devote yourself and you should be competent enough where you can see fruit from your labor which further encourages you to keep going, and giving you a sense of fulfillment.

PS. This post kinda hints at the commodification of hobbies, where we do hobbies to get something out of them.

I encourage you to have semi useless hobbies too, I have a few, such as collecting cologne, collecting lanyards from events I go to, league of legends, and credit card rewards.

I do these things because I enjoy learning about them and doing them, just for the sake of doing them.

You don’t need to make every moment of your life part of your self improvement.