Building your Ecosystem
“You keep putting one foot in front of the other, and then one day you look back and you’ve climbed a mountain.”
Build your ecosystem like Lego blocks.
I have a theory. It’s that our journey towards progress is like an ecosystem; a digital ecosystem.
To understand better,
“A digital Ecosystem is a distributed, adaptive, open socio-technical system with properties of self-organization, scalability and sustainability inspired from natural ecosystems”
I’d like to focus on three keywords here
1. Self-organization - form of order
2. Scalability - handle a growing amount
3. Sustainability - capacity to endure
In my personal experience (and opinion) these are three aspects that help us become better versions of ourselves. This is something I don’t see in self help books or videos. (If you have, feel free to share; I’ll be happy to read).
If you’re wondering why your attempt at trying multiple things to bring about better discipline, efficiency and wellbeing isn’t quite successful, then this could be why.
It’s not that there is something inherently wrong with you, but rather, wrong with the method you’re trying to adopt, or the mannerism of the same.
Let’s consider these scenarios:
You cannot possibly attempt to meditate in a noisy environment (unless you’re professional 🤔)
You cannot aim for a 4 hour study session if you’re not able to hit 30 minutes.
You cannot expect discipline to ‘just happen’ if you don’t start with the basics, like folding your sheets as you wake up.
Fold your sheets. He’s excused.
These are three different habits but individual mastery when done right aids sustainability. Multiple habits with a certain degree of proficiency further aid self-organization which can compound at a higher level to scalability in our lives.
Granted, this is a very simplistic explanation and it would require a certain amount of effort (like all good things do).
I can run 10Kilometers now, but when I started, I could barely do 400 meters and it was not fun. Not. One. Bit. There is something addictive about losing breath after a dash (maybe it’s just me 🙄) so I stuck to it.
Growth requires consistency and consistency aids further growth.
If I had to leave with one take away, it’s this.
Pick one thing that you truly want to start. Read, write, meditate, lift? Anything.
Start at a level that’s not too easy, not too hard but just right.
You could,
Read a paragraph.
Journal one sentence.
Meditate for three minutes.
Workout for fifteen minutes.
For some, these are amateur numbers (even on day one) but you’ll figure out your zone pretty quickly.
As the saying goes, “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop” - Confucius.
It’s okay if you’ve failed before. It’s only important that you try again.