I'm Not Persevering, I've Just Stopped Struggling

What's so magical about a system? How is it different from a habit? Why is building a system simpler, and more important, than forming a habit?

When I try to understand systems, it's hard not to compare them with habits.

When I was building my material library system, I started gathering material from a few fixed places and doing it every day. I called it a system. But looking only at the few things I was doing, you could just as easily call it a habit.

After thinking it over, though, I realized that's not how it is. The only reason I'd see what I was doing as a habit is that I was still looking at it from the angle of execution: I really was doing certain things. I really do pull material out of my writing and reading every day. But when I do those things, I'm only carrying out one part of my material library system.

First, my material doesn't come from just one driver. I build it up from two big directions, reading and writing. That means my sources are dynamic. It's not something I can get by opening a book to the same page every day, or by sitting at my computer and writing one article a day.

A habit, on the other hand, should be a process that can be repeated over and over and run on autopilot. The point is to reduce friction and make things easier to do.

My material system isn't just a dynamic process of input. It's also a system where the parts drive each other: when I read, I produce notes; the notes give rise to articles; the articles give rise to new insights. That makes a loop. What I read feeds into what I write, and what I write gets distilled through other methods into new material.

That's what sets a system apart from a habit: a system has a loop in it, a complete process of feedback or output. Its aim is to produce results steadily.

Raise your view a little and you can see the essential difference between systems and habits.

When Elon Musk was asked what Tesla's best product was, the S, the X, or the Model 3, he said none of them: "The factory is the product. If you get the factory right, great cars are inevitable."

That's enough to show that forming a habit is work at the level of execution, while building a system is work at the level of design. A system will certainly include habits, but habits are just small gears in the system, not the whole thing.

Let me give two real examples of my own, the only two systems I've built so far that have really worked.

The first is my writing system. What's good about building a writing system?

• I no longer worry about what to write about.
• I've gradually found areas I'm interested in and want to explore more deeply.
• With my material library behind me, I can write calmly and without rushing.
• A system is a loop. Having one sets up the loop from input to output: because there's input, there has to be output, and because there's output, there has to be input.
• It deepens my exploration of myself.
• I feel more hope and confidence about my future writing.

The second is my fitness system. What's good about building a fitness system?

• No more judging everything by physique
• No more judging everything by body weight
• No more judging everything by how much I lift
• No more comparing myself with others
• No more self-doubt
• Working out is no longer hard and painful
• I feel more hope and confidence about my future training

Before I had systems, I was always bothered by a lack of things to write about and always anxious that I lifted too little. Everything I did was done in anxiety.

Now I have systems. Before them, I wrote and worked out. With them, I still write and work out.

But really, I'm not persevering. I've just stopped struggling.

From these two systems, I can sum up a few lessons:

• A system isn't a habit, just as writing isn't writing one article and fitness isn't one strength session. It's something that has to settle in over time.
• A system has a kind of power: through practice, it shows you what you're really after. For me, I write to explore my own mind and heart and to find inner peace; I work out to have a body that's great all around.
• Why is this power so magical? Because it makes all the noise surrounding something fade away. When I want to write, I write what I think and what's in my heart. I'm not chasing traffic or exposure, and I enjoy writing every single day now. When I want to work out, I act according to my goals. I don't feel inferior because I lift light, or helpless because my muscles are small, because I know clearly what I want, and I'm on my way to it.
• Break these points down to the deepest level, and a system's most essential power is that it keeps a person walking steadily down one road for the long haul, shuts out all the noise, and makes them believe in the power of time.

The power of time is also the power of practice.

Practice has to settle in over time. Relying on willpower alone, on hot blood, lone courage, and a burst of enthusiasm, won't work. Because you don't believe in the power of time.

If you want to be a writer, start today. Start reading, start writing.

If you want to be an athlete, start today. Start running, start jumping.

If you want to be a pianist, start today. Start reading scores, start practicing.

But most importantly, believe in what you believe, and believe in the power of time.

You and your system go both ways. If you believe in the power of time, your system can stand as firm as a city wall.

So as you build your systems, slowly find that sense of reliability in time, and trust it.