the systems

 

The benefit of having nephews is realizing how long childhood lasts. Mine seems far behind me; did it really last 8 years? 8 years as an adult seems incredibly long to me. I can’t imagine myself 8 years from now.

But when I was a kid, I knew what would happen in 8 years. In 5 years. The year after. Anyway, I had an idea. But I did not decide these ideas myself; the whole system around me decided it.

 

school

As a child, I knew that at 11 I would go to college. I knew that at 15, I would go to high school.

For one school year, I knew that next term we would start a new chapter in history class. I knew that next year I could start Spanish classes if I wanted to. I knew that after this math quiz, we had English lessons. When I got home, I knew that my first priority was to finish the homework for the next day. I knew that at 14, I would have to prepare for the patent; at 17, the baccalaureate, high school diploma.

I also knew that after the baccalaureate, high school diploma, that I would go to higher education. In these higher studies, I would do internships. Then with the obtaining of a diploma, I could finally “work”. I put it in quotes because I had trouble understanding what it meant at the time.

 

Until I worked, I didn’t have to think too much.

Who decided my schedule? School. Who decided my plans for next year? School. Who decided what I could study? School. Who decided which exams to take? School. All I had to do was do my best to be successful in life afterward. Each trimester was organized by the school. Every week. Every semester. Every year. Every decade.

 

Work

And here I am with a diploma, and student debt. I have always been told that the next step is to work. So I look for a job, I find one in the field that interests me, I work. I decide to at least work until I can pay off my debt. Like at school, I do my best while waiting.

Until I finish paying off my debt, and save enough to do other things, I don’t have to think too much.

Who decides my week? My company. Who decides on the projects for the term? My company. Who has the right to veto my vacation? My company. Who decides where I can live? My company. Who decides when I have to get up and go to bed? My company. Who decides which team I work with? My company.

 

 

Yes, I have reached the “holy grail” of getting a good job. Isn’t that why we go to school in the first place? To get a good job out.

The days pass, I continue to achieve (or not) the objectives set by my hierarchy, the wheel turns, the Earth turns, and time passes.

The money comes, I pay the rent, I cook, I look for a hobby, I meet friends who have the same working hours as me – fortunately the hours dictated by their system correspond to mine.

 

But the reality is there: whether in school or in the workplace, I am caught up in a system that decides for me how I am going to spend my day, and the objectives that I must achieve in the short term, and in the long term.

 

 

And I look around me, and I see all the people who are in this same system. I think of all the people who have been in this system since the beginning of Man.

• Are you a farmer in the Middle Ages? The seasons, the weather, are the system that dictates your work.
• Are you a soldier? The army, the political tensions, are the system that dictates your work.
• Are you a slave in antiquity? The desires of your masters are the system that dictates your work.
• Are you a seller? The desires and schedules of your customers are the system that dictates your work.
• Are you a politician? Your tenure is the system that dictates your work.
• Are you a youtuber? Even if you say you do what you love, the algorithm that forces you to post videos every week and on your social network every day to keep your followers engaged and your sponsors, is the system that dictates your work.

It doesn’t matter what your training is, the number of years of study you do; you will always be caught in a system, at one time or another.

 

Changing the system is often impossible

I recently asked my manager “Would you allow me to do my job part-time, or on assignments for a few months?” “. The answer was no.

The system where I am dictates the timelines of my colleagues, and my clients. New products, integrations with customers, require an investment that is measured in months, sometimes in years. The rise in knowledge in the industry is not done over a few weeks either, but by experience on different projects. Clients and teams in different countries ask me to be available at any time of the day, and not just in the morning or afternoon.

 

The system imposes the priorities of life

Three things I understood:

1. The system controls most of my time.

I make a good living, but I spend the same time as other people at work, and I have as much time as they do to enjoy it.

2. The system gives me money to enjoy my free time.

The more money I have, the better my free time can be.

But money doesn’t necessarily give me more free time than someone else.

3. The system controls the goals of my days.

What if I don’t want to go to class? I still have to go. What if I don’t want to do this task given by my manager? I still have to do it.

Meal with friends? Sorry, the system is preventing me from going there. Daytime event? I will not go. Improvised vacation? Without me. Nobody will judge me: I had to “work”, after all. Or else I had to “study”. As long as I’m working, as long as I’m studying, I have an excuse to miss all the other things that would have seemed essential to me otherwise.

And so, when I close my computer at the end of the day, I have the fleeting feeling of having done the most important thing: of having respected the system. To have “worked well”.

It’s basically true: once school is finished, the diploma obtained, the job landed: there is no next step . We can do the same job all our lives, stay in the same place all our lives, gain no new life experience, and no one will blame us for that. We have already checked all the boxes.

 

 

And the other priorities then?

Even though I have other life goals, these are gradually fading away. After all, no one will blame me if I never write this book; most people don’t even know that I have such plans. No one will blame me if I don’t learn this instrument; if I don’t read this novel; if I don’t do my yoga session this week; if I don’t learn this language; if I do not travel to such a country; if I haven’t compiled such a video in my hard disk for months; if…

On the other hand, everyone knows that I work. Everyone will always ask me “So, how are you at work?” but no one will ask me “How are your secret projects going?” “.

Because, quite simply, all these personal projects are NOT part of a system.

• They don’t have a deadline. What is the difference between doing them this year or the year after?
• They do not come from a need for food and housing.
• They’re not a need to help someone else – or just a faint hope, but not strong enough to be sure.

 

Leave the system… or join another?

So why bother to achieve these life goals, when the system makes my existence already so comfortable?

It’s true that I complain about the lack of freedom, so I plan what I would do without any system.

But the more I plan, the more I realize that the plans I care about most still belong to a system, too, although that system is different from the one I have now.

I complain about my system engineer?

• I am looking to integrate the system of a language school to learn a language that interests me.
• I am looking for the French as a foreign language teacher system; university system first to upgrade myself, then school system later.
• I am thinking of joining the system of a circus school, to train more regularly in the artistic sports that I admire.
• I’m thinking of joining the cooking school system, as I enjoy cooking and giving good experiences to people.
• I have more motivation to write within the system of a short story contest, than to write my novels. Short story competitions always have deadlines to meet, while debut novels unfortunately don’t. News is written in a few weeks; the first novels, in several years.
• I will have a family one day, and probably my children’s schedules will determine mine until I die: the family system.

Whatever I do, I’ll probably always be in a system.

 

For my projects that are not part of a system; I still have, perhaps, to create a fictitious system for myself to accomplish them now rather than in 10 years.

By saying to myself, for example, “it will be easier to do this project now than…

• “…when I have children”
• “…when my body is old”
• “… when the world will be devastated by a new epidemic”

Or for example “I’m going to join this group of amateur writers to feel an ounce of competition that will motivate me to get my book out before they do”.

… which does not necessarily work either.

 

What are your current systems?

How do you manage to carry out projects that do not belong to any system?