Success Requires a Holistic Approach

The mistaken belief about both success and failure is that there’s a singular factor that causes either. Here are three examples.

Health

Health is not just a result of doing one thing well. When you’re healthy, it’s not just because you exercise regularly or eat well or manage your stress well. It’s a combination of these factors and more.

Similarly, when you get injured, it’s not just because of a singular event. It might seem simple to blame the yoga pose or the deadlift or tripping on the sidewalk for an injury. The truth is that it’s more complicated:

Weaknesses that developed over time through various movement patterns, which culminated in the injury in a specific point of time.

Illness works the same way.

The body is a system of systems, each of which has interdependency on the others.

Nothing fails or succeeds in isolation.

Life and Business

The same is true in your life and business.

Business strategies are a dime a dozen. If success were as easy as finding and implementing a strategy, everyone would be successful.

The reality is more complicated.

Life is a web of interconnected systems. You can’t separate your business or work from the rest of your life.

Take the example of someone who must generate business through doing sales calls. They start the day with an argument with their spouse, and head to the office feeling annoyed and angry. They implement their strategy, but it fails to generate interest because their energy is off. They return home at night after a frustrating day, and take it out on their spouse and kids.

They may think they need a “better strategy” for their business but the real issue isn’t their business strategy — what’s keeping them stuck in their business is a “life” issue.

Productivity

The same goes for your productivity. It would be great if there was a singular system or app that could help work more effectively.

But productivity is also influenced by your health, by sensations of pain, by emotions, by being clear on what you need to do in the first place.

There’s no killer app that can address all of it, because it’s never just one thing.

Why You Need a Holistic Approach

To solve the pain points in the body and in life requires a holistic approach: the ability to unravel the systems, to see the multiple points of failure, and to bring awareness to them so we can correct and integrate them.