Success Is Hard Until You Build Systems Like This

This video is all about how you can

achieve more success in your personal or

professional life by building systems.

So, we're going to talk about the

philosophy of this, why systems are

important, and what the difference is

between people who have systems and

people who don't. And in the second part

of the video, I'm going to go through

five systems that I think you should

totally incorporate into your life if

you haven't already, because they will

drastically, drastically increase your

chances of achieving whatever your own

personal definition of success actually

is. And if you're new here, hello, my

name is Ali, I'm a doctor turned

entrepreneur and author of the New York

Times bestseller Feel Good Productivity,

and this channel is all about the books

and ideas and strategies and tools

[music] that can help us achieve

financial freedom, live life on our own

terms, and ultimately build a life that

we love. So, if that sounds good, you

might like to hit the subscribe button,

but now let's dive into the video.

All right, so let's start out with a

definition. So, we are all trying to

work towards this thing that we call

success, but what the hell does success

actually mean? There are lots of

different definitions, people have their

own like ways of defining this, but in

my opinion, you would generally consider

yourself successful if you've achieved

or if you're actively working towards

goals that you intrinsically care about.

I would say your life is kind of

successful if you're working towards

those goals in a balanced way. So, for

example, I wouldn't call it massive

success if, you know, you're

single-mindedly focused on just this one

thing, but then you've like wrecked your

health and your relationships and your

life along the way. I wouldn't

personally think of that as being

success. And finally, success is where

you are actually enjoying the journey

along the way, because ultimately, you

could have success, you could have the

nicest house, you could have the

fanciest job, you could have the biggest

business, but if you haven't enjoyed the

journey of getting there, it will very

much feel hollow, because you'll get to

that destination and you'll realize that

that is not where happiness and

salvation is actually to be found. Now,

in order to achieve our goals, we

basically need to take a series of

actions. If we take the right sort of

actions and do them for long enough and

consistently enough, we are more likely

to get to our goals. In order to have a

generally balanced life, we kind of need

a somewhat reasonable diversity of goals

and a therefore diversity of actions

across the different domains of our

life. For example, our professional and

personal life, our work, our health, our

relationships, our hobbies. And in order

to have enjoyment along the way, to be

honest, a lot of it comes from our

approach to things. Like if you approach

stuff in a sort of playful way, if you

approach things in a sincere rather than

serious way, if you have an attitude and

a mindset of non-attachment, like you're

working towards your goals and you're

doing stuff to get there, but you're not

overly attached to any particular

outcome. And of course, if you can drive

intrinsic motivation for the goals that

you're achieving, so rather than being

motivated by external factors like I

don't know, fame and money and what your

society thinks you should do or

whatever, you're actually motivated by

intrinsic things, like you actually want

to do the thing. Those are generally the

factors that lead to enjoyment. And I

would like to offer for your

consideration in this video that if you

build systems into your life, you're

actually far more likely to achieve your

goals, you're more likely to do the

actions that are required to achieve

your goals, you're more likely to have a

balanced approach to the goals and the

actions that you achieve and take, and

you're also more likely to have

enjoyment along the journey, all by

building the right sorts of system into

your life.

So now let's try and define what

actually is a system. And you can define

a system as a network of interconnected

things that lead to a particular result.

And those things could be, for example,

actions, or they could be processes,

which are really just like sets of

actions, or they could be checklists,

which are again, really just sets of

actions. So what you basically have is

that a system is a step-by-step set of

actions that leads to a particular

result. And again, the whole point of

this video is that I would like to argue

that if you can take the approach of

building more systems into your life,

and basically systematizing your

approach to your personal and

professional life, in my opinion, you're

far more likely to achieve success,

whatever that definition of success is

for you. Now, I want to give you a

couple of examples here. So, imagine the

world of aviation, right? Like pilots

piloting airplanes. That is an

enormously high-stakes situation, and

the entire world of aviation is built

around systems. Systems are the most

important thing. There is a system to

build the appropriate airplane. This is

why basically all airplanes kind of look

the same, because people have figured

out a system for making airplanes fly.

And so if you deviate too much from the

system, you end up not building an

airplane that flies. Let's take another

high-stakes thing, like medicine. I used

to be a doctor, in case you didn't know.

And medicine is all about following a

system. Yes, there is some level of like

individual stuff that the doctors do.

For example, like, you know, talking to

the patient and making them feel nice.

But, when you go and see a doctor and

you talk to them about your problems,

the doctor is actually following a

system. One of the most popular systems

is the Calgary-Cambridge method of

patient interviewing, which is like a

whole system for what sort of questions,

as a doctor, you need to ask the patient

in order to make sure that you've got

all the symptoms and all the signs and

all that kind of stuff. When the doctor

examines you and listens to your heart

and like examines your abdomen and all

of that kind of stuff, again, they are

following a system. They are not just

making up as they go along. If they

have lots and lots of experience, then

yes, then, you know, the systematization

of the thing for doctors starts to

become second nature. They start to

pattern recognize, and so, they're

following a system, even though they

often don't realize they're following a

system, because the system has been so

drilled into them that they can now kind

of go a little bit off-script. But, even

then, even if you're like a surgeon with

50 years of experience and you're like

the world's best person, you still

literally have to fill out a checklist

before every single operation and at the

end of every single operation to make

sure that you've checked the boxes for

the important stuff that the system

needs to make sure the patient has a

good result. Now, in our professional

lives, in these sort of work

environments, like in medicine or in

aviation or in like Formula 1, the idea

of building systems into it is like

fairly standard. Like with your job, you

probably have systems that you have to

follow. Systems for HR, systems for

marketing, sales, operations, finance,

the whole shebang. Businesses are built

on the idea of systems. And I would like

to offer for your consideration that we

can totally build those sorts of systems

into our personal lives as well, for

pretty much any goal that we want to

work towards.

And there is a really nice visual that I

got from my friend Jeff Su that sort of

describes the value of a system. So, if

you imagine this kind of graph, we've

got effort over here, and so, this is

sort of what the line might look like if

you're trying to do stuff without a

system to it. Whereas, this is what the

line looks like if you're trying to do

something that does have a system

attached to it. It will take a little

bit more effort in the initial stages to

build the system, but then very quickly

the fact that you are now using a

system, i.e. there is a systematized set

of actions or processes or steps that

you're going to follow, it takes

actually quite a lot of work and quite a

lot of effort out of the process of

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212 for sponsoring this video. So, now

let's get back to it. I'll give you a

personal example. doing weight training

when I started out for about 5 years,

and I was not following a system. I was

going to the gym a couple of times a

week when I had the time, and I was kind

of doing whatever I felt like. I was

going with the flow. And sure, this was

kind of fun. I'd go to the gym with my

friends and stuff, but I made almost no

progress in my physique or in my health

levels or in any of those things because

I wasn't I wasn't following a system.

Recently, I started following a system.

I got a personal trainer, and he

programs my workouts, and I see him

three times a week at the same time

slot. We follow a similar kind of

workout plan with progressive overload.

There is a system behind the thing, and

for the first time in my life, I'm

finally seeing progress when I'm

actually at the gym because I'm

following a system. I'm not just

screwing around and making stuff up as I

go along and hoping for the best. I'm

following a prescribed system that

people have already figured out to get

to a desired result, which is to try and

attempt to get a little bit more jacked

and to reduce my visceral fat levels.

Let's take another example. Let's say

you are starting a business and you're

doing sales calls for the first time.

Like you're getting on the phone or a

Zoom call with your prospects and trying

to sell them your product. Not having a

system would be hopping on the call,

making it up as you go along, just sort

of vibing and going with the flow.

Having a system means that you would

have some kind of sales script that you

would follow. You're probably saying a

similar thing each time in the opening

and in the closing. You have a list of

objections that they might say, like,

you know, the price is too expensive or

I don't have the time or let me think

about it, and you have defined responses

that you figured out because you built a

system around it. You have a system for

following up with them. Now, in that

world, the business that follows a

system for their sales process is going

to make way more money compared to the

noob business that has no system around

this because they're just sort of making

stuff up as they go along. And this is

the core idea behind why systems are way

more likely to lead you to success

because success, if you define it as

achieving your goals with balance and

enjoyment along the way, is really just

about executing on a set of action. Now,

if you are making up those actions every

time depending on how you feel, you're a

lot less likely to get to any particular

goal compared to if you have a system or

a set of processes that you're following

every time.

Now, after all of that opining, I would

like to share with you five systems that

I think, if you were to incorporate into

your life, would drastically increase

your chances of success. The first

system that I think is incredibly

helpful is some kind of goal-setting

system. When it comes to achieving

success, having goals is really

important because then at least you know

what you're aiming for. You don't have

to be wedded to the goals, you don't

have to be attached to them, you don't

have to be upset if you don't manage to

achieve a goal in the time frame that

you wanted, but it's so useful to

actually have a goal to shoot for in the

first place. Now, the way most people do

this is sort of like before they have a

system, it's sort of like, you know, the

New Year comes around and they'll sort

of vaguely set some New Year's

resolutions that I want to stop

procrastinating or I want to go to the

gym more often and they just they won't

have a systematic approach to goal

setting. And so what happens is that

they start something and they sort of

meander a little bit and then they quit

or they start something else and they

kind of go all over the place and then

they quit or they set a goal for

something else and then, you know,

they've taken one step and then they

quit and it's all this sort of like

general kind of mess when you approach

goal setting as something that you do ad

hoc whenever you have the time and you

just sort of try and figure it out as

you go along. Whereas, after you have a

system for goal setting and there are

lots of them out there and I don't

really care which one you use but like

you can just Google it or ask ChatGPT or

Claude to give you a system for goal

setting. I've got my own it's called the

GPS system there'll be some videos over

there somewhere on the channel. But

after you have a system for goal

setting, you have a systematic process

that you can follow every 3 months or

every year or however frequently you

want to do it. And so for example, my

process starts with like vision where

there's like a life compass section

where you figure out like what you

actually want your life to look like

very long term and what what are your

core values and that kind of stuff. Then

we turn it into a 3-year sketch

where you can use like a vision board or

something to figure out where you want

to be 3 years from now and then we make

quarterly quests which are like 90-day

goals. Again, all of this stuff will be

linked down below cuz we've got videos

on the channel about all this stuff so

I'm not going to expand on it in too

much detail. And then after we figured

out our quarterly quests, we have a

weekly process of like prioritization

and reflection that I call the balanced

week blueprint. And you might think that

this stuff is a little bit much but like

it doesn't take that long to do. It

takes maybe a couple of hours to do like

a life compass exercise to really figure

out what direction you want to go with

your life. It takes maybe half an hour

to do like a vision board 3-year sketch.

It's it's quite fun thing to do as well.

It takes maybe half an hour every

quarter to define quarterly quests. And

what you're doing with this systematic

approach to goal setting is that you're

really trying to decide what are the

small number of goals I actually want to

work towards. And most of us go through

life without really stopping back to

zoom out a little bit and just actually

think about this. It's so easy to get

fixated on the day-to-day. We're too

busy at work and then we get home and

then there's the kids and the stuff and

whatever and there's not enough time and

not enough energy. And yet if we just

take a few hours once in a while to zoom

out and follow a systematic process for

goal setting, we are far more likely to

end up working towards goals that are

intrinsically motivated, goals that we

actually want to work towards, rather

than casually working towards goals that

are just a subconscious result of what

society has told us, what our parents

have told us, or what I don't know, the

a previous version of our self decided

to do.

The second major system I would really

recommend installing into your life is

some kind of time management system. And

again, I've made videos about this on

the channel, they'll be linked down

below if you want to check them out. But

when it comes to achieving any goal at

all, achieving every goal, as we talked

about, is a series of actions. And in

order to do those actions, we have to do

some work. And there are generally three

inputs into work, and that is time,

energy, and focus, assuming you're the

one doing the work. If you have a team

and you have other team members doing

the work, then you have the other metric

of money because you're hiring the team

and getting them to do the work stuff,

but for the most part, time, energy, and

focus are the three fundamental

resources that individuals invest in

doing work, taking actions to achieve

goals, which ultimately, fingers

crossed, leads us to success, whatever

that definition of success is for us.

And on a very basic level, the most

important one of these is time. Time is

the primary thing, because we only have

168 hours every week to do stuff. 168

hours. Most of us spend like 56 of those

sleeping, and maybe another 12 of them

eating and going to the toilet and

stuff. So what that basically leaves is

100 hours.

Nice round number. If you have a job and

you have to I don't know, spend 60 You

just, you know, you literally just got

40 hours left every single week to do

all of the things that you want to do.

If you imagine that like most people

have a screen time of like 6 hours a

day, all of those 40 hours suddenly

disappear. And so you realize very

quickly, and maybe if you're the sort of

person who watches this channel, and if

you're at this point in the video, that

like there's actually not that many

hours in every week to do all of the

things that you want to do. Which means

that if we want to be able to do the

work that helps us take the actions that

helps us get to our goal, that helps us

eventually get to success, we want to be

good at managing our time and ideally

instead of having to again make this up

as we go along, ideally we have a system

that makes it a lot easier for us to

manage our time so that we can make time

for the important stuff and get rid of

the stuff that is less important. But,

there are three key factors that I think

everyone should have. Number one, a good

time management system involves time

blocking, which is basically where you

stick blocks in your calendar for the

stuff that is important to you. For

example, I have a weekly date night with

my wife. That is time blocked. I go to

the gym three times a week. That is time

blocked. I have two filming days a week

where I work on YouTube videos. Those

are time blocked in the calendar. The

more you can intentionally decide how

you want to be using your time ahead of

time, rather than having to make a

decision in the moment and then sort of

being at the mercy of your mood or your

energy levels, the easier it is to

reliably do the actions consistently

that are going to get you to your goals.

That's not to say that you should have

no room for spontaneity. You can totally

have free time in the calendar as well

where you can just do whatever you want.

But, in general, the people that are

most likely to achieve goals are the

ones who actually make the time to

achieve those goals. Perhaps

unsurprisingly. Factor number two that

every good time management system should

have is a method for prioritization.

Now, you probably have more things you

would like to do compared to the time

that you actually have to do them cuz

you're probably an ambitious person and

you have lots of goals and you want to

live a healthy balanced life. But, as

you've probably realized it's actually

impossible to do all the things and so

we need to prioritize what are the few

that are the most important. And

thirdly, ideally every good time

management system should have some kind

of component of reflection where you

look at how you've been spending your

time, you reflect on it, and then you

use that reflection process to adjust

your time blocking and prioritization

system. For me, I try my best to do a

weekly review or reflection and this is

just a series of questions that I ask

myself. It takes about 20 minutes and

it's a good way of making sure that I'm

continually re-aligning to the goals

that I want to achieve and making

changes to my schedule if like life

happens.

System number three that I think would

benefit most people in their life is

some kind of health optimization or

health operating system. I call mine

health OS cuz it's just kind of cute.

And what this is is a system that you

can follow on autopilot that gets you to

your health goals. So, this involves

things like sleep and diet and exercise.

Now, before you have some kind of system

around your health, you sleep roughly

whenever you feel tired and you wake up

whenever you want to wake up or or with

your alarm if you have some kind of like

work to go to. Your diet is like you're

so you're sort of making it up as you go

along. Your exercise, you're sort of

doing random stuff whenever you can find

the time to do the thing. And this is

why most people are on average not

particularly healthy. But, if you're

building a system into your life where

you're following a set of processes

around your sleep, your diet, your

exercise, then you're much more likely

to be in a better place. So, what might

be the system for optimizing your sleep?

Again, we have done videos about it.

I'll link them down below, but, you

know, getting 8 hours a night is

generally very helpful. Having the room

set to 19° C is generally very helpful.

That tends to be the temperature for

most people that optimizes sleep.

Defining like when you want bedtime to

be, like, "Hey, I'm going to sleep 10:00

p.m. to 6:00 a.m." or whatever,

generally helpful. The more you can

stick to a consistent bed and wake time,

the more your circadian rhythms actually

line up and so the less likely you are

to be tired or groggy or have low energy

throughout the day. Of course, there is

the classic tip to view morning sunlight

as per Andrew Huberman, which is again

helpful for entraining our circadian

rhythm. You've got things like no phone

in the bedroom, getting rid of your

phone so that you're not like browsing

TikTok or Reddit at like 2:00 in the

morning, which is another thing that

would destroy your sleep. I personally

like having a Kindle on my bedside table

because then if I'm struggling to go to

sleep, I can just read like a

spirituality book or something on Kindle

and that gets me to sleep pretty

quickly. If you want, you can use some

kind of sleep tracker. I wear a Whoop.

I've got like a I'm using this for the

last like 380 days or something. I've

got a 380-day streak on it. And so this

gives me a sleep score. And so generally

with any kind of system, having some

sort of metric that you can look at to

see how effective is your system

performing and then being able to sort

of adjust your system based on the

metric is generally quite helpful. It's

not absolutely essential, but for most

things having some way to measure the

number actually does genuinely help. And

all of these is just a series of steps.

And sure, most people don't do all of

these things absolutely all the time,

but having a system which is sort of a

set of defaults that you're going to

follow most of the time is going to be

way more likely for you to have healthy

sleep. And obviously we know that sleep

is one of those things that like

contributes to every other area of our

life. When it comes to diet, if for

every single meal, you know, three meals

a day for like 7 days a week, if every

single time you had to figure out what

you want to do in terms of what you're

eating or what you're cooking or what

you're buying from the grocery store, A,

you end up wasting a ton of time in like

mental decision fatigue and ordering

random takeaways and going to random

restaurants and then your calories and

macros and all that kind of stuff are

off and then you end up being pretty

unhealthy. And so, what busy people and

especially people with kids tend to find

is that actually systematizing the

household diet is really, really, really

helpful. Like knowing that Tuesdays are

like Chinese takeout Tuesdays, knowing

that Thursday is a movie night with the

kids and therefore we're going to order

pizza, knowing that like we're going to

meal prep on the Sunday and then batch

prepare the breakfast for the whole week

and batch prepare the lunches for the

whole week so the kids can take them to

school or whatever the situation might

be. Almost everyone who you consider to

be successful probably has some kind of

system for their diet and their

nutrition. It doesn't have to be fancy,

it doesn't have to be private chef

levels, but just having a method that

you are following which means you don't

have to think about what the hell am I

going to eat for these 21 meals every

single week will save you a huge amount

of time and also make you way healthier.

And then of course, having some kind of

system that you're following for your

exercise. What I do personally is weight

training three times per week. I try to

do 40 minutes of zone two cardio through

like casual running about three times a

week. I aim to do yoga about one or two

times a week for general flexibility and

mobility and of course, I aim to get

10,000 steps per day because there's a

good amount of evidence that like the

more steps you take the healthier you're

going to be and so I have a walking

treadmill for my desk some of the time

as well. And again, this is a system.

The gym sessions are in the calendar,

the runs should be more systematized for

me cuz they're currently not. I kind of

make time for running when I when I have

the time, which is why I'm a lot less

consistent with this than I am with the

gym where it's actually in the calendar.

And so, if you have some kind of system

that you're following, some set of

default actions that you're taking every

week, your health is far more likely to

be good compared to someone who does not

have that kind of system. And it's like

that phrase goes, the healthy man has 99

wishes, the unhealthy man has only one.

If you are sick or unhealthy, then that

is a massive drain on practically every

other area of your life as well. And so,

you might as well follow some kind of

system. Again, if you're not sure, just

ask ChatGPT, watch some YouTube

tutorials for like and it doesn't have

to be fancy, but it does take a lot of

the guesswork and a lot of the mental

decision fatigue out of the process of

keeping on top of your health.

System number four that I think everyone

would benefit from is some kind of

system to keep on top of the

relationships that matter to you the

most. Now, this is where it can

sometimes sound weird being like, why

would you build a system for

relationships? Relationships shouldn't

be systematized. That's just not true.

Like if you ask any like marriage

counselor or marriage therapist or read

any book about what makes a successful

marriage. Actually, what a lot of it

comes down to is systems. Making sure

you have a weekly date night and that

it's in the calendar and that both

parties know that it happens every

Sunday evening, for example. That is an

example of a system. Doing something

like regular relationship reviews, maybe

once a month where you and the spouse or

you and your partner sit down and

actually reflect on the state of your

relationship and if there's any like

minor grievances that you haven't had a

chance to bring up and you talk about

those things. Again, sounds weird, but

it's incredibly helpful. Me and my wife

were seeing a relationship therapist

before we got married just cuz I got

some advice from a friend saying that

like relationship therapists are

amazing. And he recommended we do

relationship reviews. We read a couple

of books about how to have a successful

marriage that also would bullish on

relationship reviews. This is a way of

systematizing your relationship so that

you do the sensible things without

having to think too hard about them. As

you become super busy at work, it's

generally very helpful to block out

holidays in advance. So a lot of the

most successful entrepreneurs I know

really, really take their personal life

and their relationships very seriously.

And so at the start of the year, before

they do any of their business planning,

they will block out in the calendar,

okay, this is holiday with the spouse,

this is holiday with the kids, this is

we're going to take all of August off

for a sabbatical. Because if you don't

block all of that stuff out in advance,

then the work and life commitments will

just sort of fill the gaps. And so

you've got to be intentional about

blocking this stuff out in advance. This

is building a system around your

relationships. The most social people I

know are not just randomly going to

social events, especially once they

become adults and start having kids and

start becoming busy. They start doing

standing order social events. One of my

friends in that who's very intentional

about relationships, he was like living

in Austin for a few years, and so he and

his wife set up a weekly meet-up at the

local lake. Anyone was invited, so they

just invited all their friends. They're

like, "Hey, we're going to be at this

lake 8:00 a.m. every Saturday morning,

and then we're going to go for breakfast

afterwards. If you can make it, come

join us." And they did this every single

week for 4 years, and this was an

amazing way for them to maintain

relationships and friendships with

people that they already knew. And also

was a fantastic way to get to know new

people because, you know, new people

would be like, "Oh, you know, my friend

Johnny's in town, like let's bring him

along to this Saturday or to social

event, this like 8:00 a.m. every

Saturday lake meet-up." So, there's

things like that that you can do that

systemize the stuff that you want to do

in your social life as well. This is the

value of like a monthly book club or a

weekly lads video game night or monthly

movie night with your friends, and

especially when people get busy. Like,

if you're watching this and you're young

and you're like, "Holy I can't

believe like why do you have to stick a

calendar event for hanging out with your

friends?" If you're watching this and

you're above the age of 25, you know

that you're busy, your friends are busy,

especially if you're watching this and

you have kids or your friends have kids.

It's such a total freaking nightmare

trying to schedule people and get them

together, which is why having a system

around it can really, really help. And I

don't know if it's a thing in the rest

of the world, but in the UK, there's

like a real tradition of like sending

physical Christmas cards to the people

that you know. And so, we really suck at

this, but like I've got some friends who

are really good at sending an annual

Christmas card, and it's amazing how

such a small thing can actually sustain

a friendship for decades and decades

because you know you've got this annual

touch point where you just send a nice

handwritten Christmas card, maybe

there's a photo of the family, maybe

there's a bit of an update about what

you're up to. And there is a system

around this. The people that remember

birthdays, they probably don't have the

birthday in your head, they probably

have it in their calendar. And the

people I know who are the most

thoughtful about birthdays, not only

have your birthday in the calendar, but

they'll have a recurring event every

year in their to-do list that like 2

weeks before the birthday reminds them

that, "Hey, Ali's birthday's coming up

on whatever." And so, they'll start

thinking about the gift or the card and

stuff like 2 weeks in advance. All of

these are different examples of

systemizing your relationships so that

it takes the guesswork out of it, it

takes the the decision fatigue out of

it, and ultimately it nudges you towards

doing the actions that you know are

going to make it more likely that you

achieve your goal. In this case, it's to

maintain a good relationship with your

spouse and kids and friends and family

and stuff.

The final system I want to talk about in

this video, and we could talk about this

for for absolutely ever because I love

this stuff. This would be some kind of

system around what do you do by default

when your paycheck comes in, assuming

you have a job or assuming you have a

business. And in general, most personal

finance advisers and gurus and stuff who

like think about this stuff a lot and

advise people about it, talk about

building a system to put your finances

on autopilot as much as possible. So,

the people that end up not saving or

investing any money are the ones who get

the paycheck, and then they do whatever

they want with it. And then they're

like, "Oh, hey, at yeah, at some point,

if there's any left over, then I'll

invest it or then I'll save it." That

often never works because there is often

very little left over. Let's say this is

your monthly paycheck. As soon as the

paycheck comes in, automatically some

percentage of it is set aside for

savings, and it goes into a a savings

account, for example. Automatically some

percentage of it is set aside for

investments, and it automatically goes

into the investment account via

Robinhood or the Roth IRA or whatever

the system is depending on your country.

Some percentage of it is automatically

set aside for tax if you are in a

country or in a situation where you have

to pay your own taxes.

Some is automatically set aside for

bills.

And then you know that you can kind of

do whatever you want with the rest

because at least the basics that are

going to keep you out of prison and that

are going to grow your financial nest

egg have been taken care of. This is an

example of a personal finance system. It

is a series of actions or steps that you

do every time you get your paycheck that

reduces the need for guesswork, and if

you can automate as much of this as

possible, it means that you don't even

have to make the decision every single

time cuz it automatically goes into the

savings account and the investment

account and the bills account and the

tax account, and then you know what's

left over. Whereas, if this is not

automated, then every single month you

have to actively make the decisions. And

the problem with actively make making

decisions is that we generally make

decisions emotionally rather than

logically, even though we like to think

of ourselves as logical creatures.

Actually,

like 99% of our decisions are made

purely based on emotion. And because our

emotions are like fluctuating,

if we're feeling great and the paycheck

hits, then fantastic. We might be, you

know, be living in line with our our

future self and like putting stuff into

savings and investments. But if we're

not feeling great and the paycheck comes

in, we might be doing a lot less

sensible things when it comes to our

money. And so what a system does is that

it removes the need for you to make that

decision every single time. You make the

decision ahead of time, you set it and

forget it. And that tends to be how the

people that succeed at saving and

investing through uh the mechanism of

something like a regular paycheck, they

tend to have some kind of system around

it. Now, hopefully this video has

convinced you that it's very helpful to

have systems around your personal and

professional life to help you achieve

your goals. And if you're interested in

learning more about the specific system

that I've developed around goal setting,

then there will be a video right over

here, which is about the GPS method.

Now, GPS stands for goal, plan, and

system. So, it's another video that's

about systems, but it will go into much

more detail about specifically how to

set goals, how to create plans, and then

how to build systems to make sure you

actually stick to the plan. So, that'll

be right over there. And thank you so

much for watching, and I will see you

over there. Bye-bye.