Power of the ‘Systems’

Recently I read a book called ‘Don’t Waste your Talent’ written by Bob McDonald and Don E. Hutchinson which takes the reader on a journey towards creating their ‘Personal Vision’.

The most poignant message of the book was about how deeply our ‘systems’ affect us and our life choices. They use the word ‘system’ to describe the many social groups we are a part of, like our family, our school, our place of work, the city we live in and so on.

Often we get so caught up in assuming the role our ‘systems’ want or need us to be that we forget to look inside ourselves to ask , “Who do I want to be?” or “What is the role I choose?”

These social systems become structures which heavily influence and in as sense, determine our actions. We don’t want to disrupt the social world by acting in a way that threatens the structure ….right?

Wrong!

I say….

Why not push the boundaries?

Why not step out of our comfort zone?

Why not change the system or the structure everyone else seems to follow?
Sometimes it feels like society writes us a script, and we simply read from it. So are we just followers of everyone else?

Through my work as a coach I see the affect that our ‘systems’ can have, if we let them. It feels like people are programmed by their systems to always take the right “next step” – from going to university after high school to having children after getting married. But is that what we TRULY want?

Perhaps your answer is yes….but don’t just assume it to be YES. Ask yourself. Question the system. Don’t just be a follower.

Take control of your life and get what YOU want out of it.