Author and Zen Habits Publisher Leo Babauta observes that most of us are constantly looking or the Perfect System:

• The perfect morning routine
• The perfect system for dealing with email
• The perfect system for productivity, to end procrastination
• The perfect system for finances or building wealth
• The perfect system for learning anything
• The perfect system for being mindful, getting fit, losing weight, decluttering, building new habits, being a parent, building a new career, and on and on

Why do we feel so in need of a new system?

• Does your day feel chaotic, overwhelming, uncontrolled? Then you try to address that chaos by finding a perfect system.
• Are you entering a new, scary area in your life? Then you try to find out how others conquered the uncertainty of this area, what their perfect system was. You’d probably be willing to pay hundreds of dollars, if not thousands, for their perfect system.
• Are you overwhelmed by email, social media, finances, habits, diet and exercise, clutter, and more? Then you try to deal with the chaos and uncertainty of all of that by buying a book, a program, a course that teaches you the perfect system.

According to Babauta,
all such systems are actually
addressing the same root problem:
Uncertainty!

When new systems don’t work, we search for something we absolutely know how to do.…like watching TV, checking Facebook or playing games.

But doing the easy stuff and running from the fear doesn’t work. We still have uncertainty, but we try to ignore it, remove it with the distractions. Soon our system is crushed by uncertainty, fear, discomfort, and running from difficulties.

Babauta’s Perfect System to Crush All Others

Notice when you are looking for certainty from a system, course, book, and so on. that you are feeling uncertainty; That you are trying to find certainty.

Say to yourself,

“Certainty is the enemy of awesome.
Uncertainty is the fuel for an amazing life.”

• Repeat it until you believe it.
• Say it with gusto, zest and verve!
• Yell it out loud until your neighbors look up from their phones in dismay!
• Resolve yourself to not run from uncertainty like a coward, but to face it like a warrior.
• Stay with the feeling of fear and uncertainty.
• Laugh at the discomfort in derision, laugh at its pathetic attempts at making you flee.
• Push further into uncertainty and fear by doing whatever you are afraid of.
• Feel the fear.
• Feel the uncertainty.
• Feel it transforming you into a powerful being, trembling with the discomfort of being amazing and delicious.

Then push into new uncertain territory,
feeling the groundlessness of growth and learning and fearlessness.

You no longer need to run.

You can stay in courage and awesomeness.

You no longer need to find certainty or answers or systems.

VIA | ZenHabits.net, The Perfect System | Used with permission