Well, Hey everybody, Jonathan Doyle with you. Once again, welcome aboard friends to the daily podcast. It is good to be with you. I hope you got a chance to listen to yesterday's episode where I went. Deep on the topic of commitment of showing up when you just don't feel like it of honoring the gift that you have been given. So I hope you got a chance to listen to that, to yesterday's episode, which I think.
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We're going to talk a little bit about systems. I know some of you are listening. Um, regular listeners thinking, when are we back on Marcus Aurelius? I'll probably pick that up again tomorrow. Um, we're going to take that journey over us. Extended period of time. So. Um, Marcus Aurelius will rejoin us tomorrow all the way from first century Rome. He's just great how he just makes time for us. So we're going to check in there tomorrow.
Today, we're going to talk about a quote from James clear, who's an author. And I came across a quote of his a few days ago, which I thought was excellent. I'm going to unpack that a little bit together. He says this. He says, you do not rise. To the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. Or more time you do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.
Now, if you read his work, you will know that he is deeply focused on the way that habits shape our outcomes and what incredibly habitual creatures we are. If you're not across the basic sort of neuroscience of habits. Um, You know, Imagine if we had to relearn most things every single day. Imagine if we sort of went through life, having to relearn every day. How to brush our teeth, how to cook a particular meal, how to make a cup of coffee, how to drive to work.
If every single day we know kind of like Dory and finding Nemo, or we just keep forgetting everything and having to do it again. And again. So to, you know, I guess to take the pressure off the neural load that we bear. As a species we've got really good at habits. We've got really good at habitual things that we do day in, day out that reduce the neural load that stop the brain drain. And hopefully make our lives more efficient and effective.
And of course, There's a whole perimeter here of, uh, different habits, right? The different ways that we can use habits positively and negatively. You know, people can use a substance to change their feeling state. And it's highly effective. So you can take drugs for example, and immediately change your feeling state. But there's of course other what the economists would call opportunity costs, right? Trade-offs in health and relationships and all sorts of other stuff.
So humans are always looking for these ways. To simplify life, to make life more efficient and effective. So what, uh, James clear is telling us here is that. You know, none of us really have too much trouble articulating goals. Most people could say, oh yeah, I'd like this. Or I want to be this fit or lose this weight. Or I live here, I own this or drive that. Most of us do not have too much trouble figuring out the things that we actually want in life. So why don't we get them?
I've been talking about this a lot in recent episodes. What stops us? You know, I've spoken recently about Stephen Covey's sort of point is that if you want different goals, you want different outcomes. You have to do different things. So there's a bunch of reasons why people don't get to their goals. But I think today, this is another insight is James clear says you fall to the level of your systems. So he's immediately highlighting the systemic.
The systematic nature of human personal effectiveness is the goal of life to be. Um, optimized is the goal of life to be hyper-efficient no, the goal of life is to love people. And to fully actualize your potential in the service of something bigger than yourself. That's the purpose of life? I think. But. Part of the, you know, the freedom that we have. Is to choose how we want to develop and what we want to develop in our lives.
And one of the ways we do that is the systems that we build around it. You know, you look at. Elite military units, right? Everything is systematized. Everything because they're high pressure situations. With a huge number of variables. So the, the training is built on this endless redundancy of systems. This happens, then do this, this happens, then do that. This thing goes over here. Then that thing goes over there. So I've never been in the military, but.
You know, you understand that from the moment you're inducted, your life becomes radically systematized. You don't join the. You know, the U S Navy seals. And then I'd say, Hey guys, listen, I'm the head to bed when you feel like it, and look just wake up tomorrow or whatever time suits and then a. You know, we'll meet together, we'll have a vote and see, uh, we want to do some exercise and on, and then we'll just, you know, have a bit of a chat and see what we've got planned for the day.
That's not how it works. Is it right? It's like every single second of the day. It's highly systematized. And that systematic nature of the day leads to extraordinary accomplishment of goals and outcomes and mission parameters. Right. So we look at these different effective systems such as elite military units, and we discover that the systems. Create high-level outcomes. You know, imagine being like a neurosurgeon, right? Like there's a bunch of systems that you follow.
There's a bunch of protocols about what happens next and then this, and then this. Think about pilots, right? I mean, Paula, stand, sit there and go, Hey, let's just get it off the ground and see what happens. Right. You know, let's just fingers crossed. Is it windy? I don't know who cares. Let's just hit those engines and see what happens next. Of course, it's massively systematized and it's funny to note.
That even in this really advanced, you know, technological culture we live in that pilots are still highly systematized. Checklist checklist checklist checklist. So what's the goal? Well, to get the plane off the ground. And to not kill a whole bunch of people and land them safely on the ground. Another destination. So the goal is clear. But the systems are utterly central. So let's just take this into our own lovers. Right?
So what James clear is telling us is that if we want to have a higher level of goal attainment in our lives, What we are going to need. Is to have quality systems in our lives, quality systems around nutrition, quality systems, around exercise quality systems around how we use our free time. Uh, quality systems about how we avoid distractions, quality systems. About, you know, the, the, how we allocate our time, how we effectively and efficiently use our time.
I spoke recently about a. A video is Lex Frieden. Who's a Silicon valley guy and he he's a single guy, but he did a video on how he uses his time in a day. And he's a very influential dude. And it's fascinating to watch. He sort of builds his day around three, four hour blocks of uninterrupted, deep verticals, deep work. You know, like this idea that he wants to be highly, you know, uninterrupted, he wants to focus intently on a particular thing.
And so his systems, his whole day is just highly systematized. He allows himself sort of free reign later in the evenings. And often some time on the weekends, but his goal outcomes, his attainments in life are a mix of, you know, genetics and intellect and all the stuff that he brings, but he's really systematized his life. You know, and I'm, you know, I would have to say. I mean, it's harder for me with three young kids and, um, you know, we're, we're home educating one of our kids.
So that takes up a fair bit of time. There's a little, there can be sort of. You know, sometimes for us, there's different challenges with how time's allocated during the day. But definitely for me between about 4:00 AM and 8:00 AM, basically every single day, my time is highly systematized. You know, I've got a beautiful coffee machine in my downstairs office. It's set on a remote timer. It turns on about 3:30 AM I come down at four. I have coffee exactly the same way at exactly the same time.
I don't touch any email or anything. I have an hour for sort of prayer or meditation. And then I'm usually training some other on the trainer bike or I'm out on the road or I'm running or I'm rocking or doing whatever it is I'm doing. Uh, and then I'll do some recording. I'll often try and get, uh, the days podcasts and videos done, you know, before eight o'clock. And then, you know, I'll take one of the kids to school and I'm back. And then it's just bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.
It's very systematized. And it helps me, like, I've always just been somebody who has really responded. To predictability in the environment. So I just want to say to you in this episode that if you want some more efficiency and effectiveness in your life, if you want some more goal attainment in your life, look at the systems. Do you let the day happen to you or do you take control of the day? Yes, that can be spontaneity. Yes. We can make time for people that need us.
Yes. Yes. Yes. But is the broad description of your life, a life that has a level of systems. And repetitive behaviors that move you towards success. What is success? Success is unleashing and using the extraordinary potential God has created you with that's the game. That's the game we're playing here. The game we're playing is not the game of accumulation or financial reward. The game we're playing is not the game of power and cultural recognition. The game that we are playing.
Is the game of gratitude for the talents and abilities that we have and the game of finding ways to develop them fully so that we can serve other people and make the world of fractionally better place than we found it. So let system serve you. My friend, let systems serve you. If you think about what I'm saying, you will get it. It's like, don't let the day just happen.
Don't just look if you're on holiday, if you're in Hawaii, whatever me, but even then, you know, when we will ask, we've been Hawaii heaps and. You know, even then we're still thinking about, okay, what do we want to go? What do you want to see? What do we want to experience? We would have a rest day. We'll have this day. Trust me. I'm not like I don't run around with my family with a clipboard. I don't. I really do not do that.
Um, though this morning when we were heading off to church, getting them all in the car on time is. They could have done with a clipboard. I tell you the truth that would have worked beautifully. But in general, um, you know, I hold myself to a pretty high standard. I try and model this to the kids. Uh, just in terms of, you know, they see that I do certain things in a certain way, and I do them regularly to them every single day.
I think it's good for them to see that, to model it, but I don't inflict this on others and not inflicting it on you. I'm offering it to you. So one more time, James clear says you do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. So you can write down the most magnificent goal on the planet. It can be beautiful, spectacular, remarkable. But if your systems will not support it, you're not going there.
And it's going to be eventually deflating and annoying and frustrating. So God bless everybody. That's all I want to say. Think about your systems. Think about your systems. Think about the structures and protocols and repeated behaviors that lie underneath the things you say are important. In your life. All right. We're done. Would you subscribe for me if you haven't done it already? Excuse me. Hit that subscribe button and go check out all those show notes. Book me to speak live.
Um, and also if you want to just reach out and frame a question for me, I love it. When people do that, you can email me direct jonathan@jonathandoyle.co. But, um, love to come and speak at your organization business school, church, government group, whatever it is, reach out friends. I book up very quickly, but, uh, there's always a couple of spaces here and there. If you would love to talk about that. So God bless you guys. My name's Jonathan Doyle.
This has been the daily podcast and I'll have another message for you tomorrow.