Why I love flawed systems - and you should too

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Often people see systems as props they're things you do, ways of

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being you impose on yourself to fix or manage you so you can pretend all those

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inconvenient human bits don't exist.

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And have a nice tidy productive life and business.

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However, there is one small problem systems are incredibly human.

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We ourselves are made up of multiple systems.

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Your body is multiple systems interconnected together.

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The way that you think you move around the world, the way you see things.

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Is a system.

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A system is not something you do, and it's not reserved for the

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people who are systems orientated.

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Systems are what we do.

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And in this episode, I wanted to explore the systems of humanity of us.

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The things that make us human.

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Because if you start with what you know There's a lot you can do.

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And this one I'm going to focus specifically.

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Around the cycle of experience.

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Our cycle of experience, how we experience life day to day.

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So the cycle of experience is a term used in gestalt psychology.

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And to put it plainly it's a way of viewing the fundamental human

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way of finding out what you need.

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Moving to action to actually get it and then learning from the

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experience, there have been so many different ways of thinking and talking

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about it but I think my favorite way is thinking of it simply as.

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Us moving through flow.

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It's the ability to go between withdrawal and not having any interest

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or any knowledge or any, anything into making full contact with what we do.

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And then withdrawing again and we move past this.

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Now in a previous podcast episode, I think either this one or another one.

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I asked you to stop and look around where you are now and just let your eyes.

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Look around the room.

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Do that for me right now.

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And as you do that, Notice what your eyes are doing.

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I said to look around the room.

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Look at what's around you.

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And you may have noticed that your eyes are.

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Focusing on things, moving from object to object, to object between

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objects over and over again.

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This in essence is the cycle of continuous experience.

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This happens every day, all the time.

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We go from focus or figure to figure we move between the plate

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that settle on the sofa across from me to the PS five controller.

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That's next to me.

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And the bit in the middle is the interesting bit.

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The part that is there, but it's not there.

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It's the ground, it's the background stuff that happens.

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The fertile void is what it's called.

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And I find that really fascinating.

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That us as human beings have a system of awareness.

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So if I was to break these down into each of the different flow

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states, because Of course I would.

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Why wouldn't I.

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We start with a sensation where you notice.

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Huh?

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That's the thing that's happening right now.

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Then quickly moves into that nagging of Huh, this is bothering me.

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This is distracting me a little bit from that you move into action.

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You know what you need to do.

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You've had the chance of figuring out the steps that you need to take to do it.

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And you're now moving towards it.

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Once you've done this you make actual contact.

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This is the height of the experience.

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This is the exciting part of that.

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Oh my gosh.

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I have achieved this.

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Then we move into the final stages where we're starting to withdraw from the

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object you have this sense of resolution.

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Now.

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Not necessarily positive or negative.

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But you have that moment of this is done.

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I've made that connection and now I'm moving away.

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It is coming out of my awareness of that area of experience.

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It's no longer.

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The main focus of my experience.

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And then from there, you're moving towards that completion.

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It's like, okay, I am done.

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I wipe my hands and put it away.

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It is now finished.

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And these three sections can.

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Be broken down into these multiple.

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These multiple stages can be broken down into three sections.

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You have planning.

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Doing and reflecting.

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Now.

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As wonderful, wonderful human beings.

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Often there are parts of those stages where we are not very good at.

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Or we spend too much time in.

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The idea behind the experience the cycle of experience is that it gives us the

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ability to see what we're doing to be aware of it, to make contact and then

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create meaning from the experience.

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So then it becomes part of us.

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It becomes part of who we are.

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This is the system that we do.

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And for those who are learning nerds, You would probably recognize

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it as gold learning cycle.

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It is the planning, the doing the reflecting it's that cycle

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of learning that we have to do.

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And the layers of reflection.

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And I find that fascinating because just bringing awareness to our awareness,

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which is exactly what I'm doing right now.

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Allows you to go.

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Huh.

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I struggle with this part.

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Not the best at noticing when something is drawing my attention, the planning stages.

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I have a tendency to perhaps rush in to making action and contact.

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I don't plan.

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I don't have that moment of.

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Sensation or awareness.

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I'm not aware of it until the very last minute.

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And then I'm already making contact with it and it's too late.

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Or perhaps you're like me and you have a tendency to mess the reflection

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of satisfaction you move from.

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Withdrawal to action.

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You move from.

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Contact an action.

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You got action contact.

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You just continually move from one thing to another.

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From one thing to another, you notice something, you do it,

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you go back to noticing someone else, you do something else.

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And you're just constantly going back and forth, back and forth.

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Instead of having time to reflect.

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This is something that a lot of people, I talk to a lot of my clients.

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I noticed that straight away is the fact that they know what they want.

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To achieve, they know the end goal, but they don't know what they

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actually want and what that looks like, what that can actually be,

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how that actually can show itself.

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Now, this is, this is a bit of a heady topic for this one.

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And I want to give you a real example of like, what.

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Let's talk about a real, tangible example of.

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That flow of continuous experience, that, that way of where we experience things.

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And the example that was taught to me.

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Was.

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Having a drink.

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So I'm sat here.

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Talking to you.

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On this podcast, recording it in my living room, but I notice.

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Just just the little sense that my throat is a tiny bit dry.

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It's just that little bit now.

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And as I'm continuing to talk to you, I can.

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See that there's a bottle of water next to me.

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And it's now beginning to distract me.

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I can not really focus fully on what I'm talking about because I'm

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looking for my bottle of water.

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And now I need to go, okay, well, what am I going to do?

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What am I going to do about it?

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What action do I need to take right now?

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Is it, would it be, would it make sense for me to grab my bottle?

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Would it make sense for me to grab my bottle right now?

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Can I.

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I don't seem to have it in the room for me, but I know it's there.

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And so I understand what's happening next.

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I can take a drink if I had it with me.

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I could take a drink.

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And I have.

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Contact with that.

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So, what am I going to do about it?

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That's the next point is what action do I need to take?

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Well, I need to grab my cup.

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That's the simple fact I need to come in and, and grab my cup.

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Once I've grabbed my cup, I can take a drink.

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I can tip it up.

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And I actually have contact with that liquid, with the

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sustenance of having a drink.

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And now I know.

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Ah, yes, that's better.

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I've swallowed my drink.

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My throat is no longer dry anymore.

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And I'm ready to go on with the episode.

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I'm ready to continue with what I'm talking to you about.

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Okay.

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So what the actual hack does having a sip of tea have to

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do with building a business.

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And being productive and finding simplicity.

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When it comes from that fundamental aspect of starting with you.

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Everything you build starts from you.

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Every part of your business and your life stems from where you are right now.

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As I've said in previous, upstairs, I don't know.

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I will keep saying.

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If you're able to understand how you as a system work, you can

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start to use the systems that.

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Every single human being has.

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To create a business system to create a project manager, a task manager,

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whatever the tactically things.

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It starts from understanding why you start from.

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What is the context that you're staying with?

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What is the context that you're coming from?

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Because as I said, right at the top of the episode, Instead of

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seeing your systems as props.

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You could move from a place of ha I am a human being, which means

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my system doesn't have to be.

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Perfect.

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It can be flawed.

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Um, Flexible and work in different ways based on where I am right now.

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That's where the humanity comes from your systems and being able to go in

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and say, well, how do I want it to feel?

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Because we are emotional human beings.

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We run emotionally.

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Every single client I work with.

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I am always asking that same question.

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How do you want your system to feel?

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What does it need to feel like for you?

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And I don't necessarily mean it from a, uh, a woo or a spiritual standpoint.

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I mean, from a real tactical standpoint, do you want it to feel simple?

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Do you want to.

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Would you want it to feel, uh, deep, but you want it to feel shallow?

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Like what you want it to feel like?

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Because as I've said multiple times before the words matter, so words

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you're using, when you're talking about your productivity or what you do.

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Because then you can define those things, the feelings that you're

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feeling defined them, and it gives you something to work from.

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The most overwhelming part of setting up a system.

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From the experience I've had with my clients is knowing where to start.

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Why do you start?

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I'm starting from scratch.

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The cool thing is you're not starting from scratch.

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System's a human.

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You are a human.

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Start with you.

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And if we're in the like, you know, 50th century and there are aliens around who.

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Systems work differently, but I am sure that you have some form of a system too.

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So.

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Systems are not.

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Something.

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That is external.

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They start internally.

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And I think that's where a lot of.

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Systems design is full short.

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It's a prescription.

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It's a, this is how you work.

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This is how you fix what is broken.

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This is how you do things.

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This is how you stop to work in the right type of way in

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the right format, in the right.

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Et cetera, et cetera.

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You are not broken.

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Your system, isn't something to fix you.

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It is not a thing to make you better.

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It is.

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Uh, part of you.