Microwins

CHAPTER 11The Microwins System

The Microwins System is simple. I have tried a litany of self-help hacks claiming to improve everything from time management to anxiety. For each of our domains (work, family, and health), I’ve read a library’s worth of nonfiction books. Every book came with a system. And in all honesty, I can admit that I gave up on most of those systems because I wasn’t seeing quick results.

I believe that most self-improvement systems work if you do. Put differently, systems work when people work. It’s not enough to know what to do. Most people know what to do, but few people do what they know. The most well-developed plans are pointless without human execution. Let’s walk through the Microwins System. Don’t worry; nothing you read in this section of the book will require you to do complex math. You won’t have to maintain reams of records or an approach to crafting and executing the microwins that will shift your life for the better.

Step 1: Reimagine Yourself

I have a sneaky suspicion that most of us have given up on life. That is not to say that we don’t want to live anymore. Rather, we have arrived at the conclusion there isn’t more life left. We believe our best days are in the past and the window of opportunity for reinvention has closed.

I find myself slipping into this malaise sometimes. As I sit in bumper-to-bumper traffic, transporting my children ...