First of all, if you haven't heard of James Clear, go ahead and check out his site right now.  I am a big fan, a subscriber to his newsletter, and have derived - and continue to derive - substantial amounts of inspiration from his ideas.  Clear, like many of the other small handful of truly elite "modern gurus", loves to talk about the system.  Obey and trust your system and you will get results (paraphrase)! He says.  You can read more about his philosophy on productivity, specifically, here; or, you can always search his entire site starting from the homepage here (plenty of great information on there!  No, I am not commissioned to write for Clear!!!).   I have gained significant insights into my own life and habits through reading Clear's work, but I think my biggest hurdle to overcome has probably been the issue of systems and "obeying the system"......that is, until it all hit me like a speeding bullet train this past week.

You see, in all Clear's (and other gurus I read the works of) discussions on "They System", even while still being inspired, I have always fixated on the myriad of specific examples he gives and thought: "Oh, that will never work for me!"  But, just like "The System" which Clear and the other elite gurus of our current modern time promote, he is ​not leading us to use a SPECIFIC system!  Clear wants us to think about how other "greats" use their own systems to lead, encourage, and inspire us to start coming up with our own.

Let me cut to the chase.  I have always wanted to own and operate my own money-making website - ideally several - but let's start with the basics here.  For years (almost two decades now!) I have had the desire to have at least one successful and money-making website.  I have been hampered between "finding inspiration" and "working within a system".  Gurus like Clear will say the system is more important than the inspiration itself, which I have had trouble rectifying in my own life; however, now I think I understand it.  You need both!  Ideally, your ideas and productivity will be firing on all cylinders when the two complement each other, but this is seldom the case - or, should I say, this is seldom (if ever) always the case all the time.

No one wants to build a system that they KNOW with absolute certainty will always be 100% boring 100% of the time.  Yet, at the same time, without a system in place (i.e. by just relying solely on your intermittent "inspirational bursts of energy"), you really will get nowhere!  As a true Aquarius is always wont to do, lately I have finally come to the conclusion of trying to combine these two extremes in the systems I know I need to create in my own life - specifically focusing on physical exercise/activity (i.e. doing more of it myself) and building a successful money-making website.  Rather than pinning myself down to a specific day and time, I have really started looking hard at and analyzing the times of the day and the days of the week that I am the most naturally productive, or otherwise "inspired to get things done", for lack of a better way to describe it.  I have then started to create my schedule - my system - by building it around my own "natural schedule" of "natural inspiration/productivity".

Now, HERE'S THE CATCH, AND HERE'S WHY I HAVE CONFIDENCE IN THIS METHOD: as I start to build my own systems this way I am going into the process from the beginning of operating with full knowledge from the very beginning that no matter what there will definitely be days - probably many, many, many days and times - that I will NOT feel inspired or productive even at a "natural" time of "peek productivity/inspiration" for me.  I am fully aware of this and accept this.  However, by building my systems around my natural times of peek performance, I am ensuring that I will feel inspired and productive more often than not at those time.

More next time to see how I am doing on this front.

Better life, better business!

​-Andreas

Every time I do this it gets easier.  It is not so much that it ACTUALLY gets easier - the work always remains the same, that is the beauty of it - but my perception of the work changes.  Just like anything that is practiced and repeated over and over again, the more you do it, the better you get at it.  I am talking about creating an Online Empire!  And, no, I am not the person who "blogs for 10 minutes a day and finds myself rolling in riches" (I wish!), I am the person who is able to find some time here and some time there over the years (yes, you read that right, years) to build a simple web page here, upload a few photos there, and pound out a blog post on rare occasion when I can squeeze in a quick break away from my responsibilities of raising a family and my exceptionally demanding and grossly underpaid job in educational leadership after 11:00PM (which, almost every night of the year, I am passed out in a comatose sleep by this point in time!).  But the dream lives on!

Here's what I hear a lot of gurus say: "You need consistency!"  "Obey the system!"  Yes!  This is all true, it just so happens that my "system" isn't "blogging for 10 minutes a day", it is more like "blogging for a month or two each late Fall/Winter".  Hey, not that I necessarily condone this system for everyone (or even for myself for much longer), but the point that I can now recognize that I HAVE a system - a system that is delivering!  Every year I add a handful of blogposts to the World Wide Web.  Every year I get a little bit more "net savvy".  Every year my plan of action is ever so slightly more refined.  And this is what it is all about!  It has taken me well over a decade - almost two - to finally gain a footing on what I am doing.  But hey, the important thing is, I have a footing now!  And now that I have a footing, I can kick my heels into the ground, stand strong and tall as the current pushes against me, and move forward from here!

Here's to building a better business!

​-Andreas