The RAG System
raise up your hand if you have some sort
of idea
on what you want to achieve
notice how most of us have some sort of
idea in what we want to achieve
dreams as many would say the most
remarkable thing about a dream is that
it can be
anything you want from becoming a pilot
to a singer
or just even becoming good at a skill
like painting
the thing with dreams though is that
they don’t involve much more than a few
thoughts in your head
you don’t have to think about and act on
how to achieve those dreams
however what i’m telling you today is
not about dreaming
it’s about recognizing that you have a
goal or multiple goals and learning how
to achieve those through smaller steps
this year like for many students my
exams had gotten cancelled
which meant that i had a lot of free
time but nothing really to do
the time to reflect actually benefited
me quite well as i had more time to
realize how i was spending my days a lot
of you might be thinking
well yeah that’s how i felt too the
story isn’t uncommon
we had all gotten so constantly fixated
on achieving our day-to-day tasks and
goals and priorities and projects
that we actually forgot to plan what we
were doing leading to
demotivation and procrastination for
many cases
i thought about this quite a lot during
quarantine and realize that it actually
isn’t that hard to maximize your time to
increase the best possible
efficiency that you can and so
to solve this i came up with a simple
system and it came
up to three simple aspects that we can
all achieve it through
reflection action and grit the rag
system
so let’s start with the first aspect of
the rag system
reflection so when faced with the
supposedly simple concept of
work hard to achieve your dreams it can
be confusing where to start
what do you work hard on how many hours
you have to spend on the goal
how do you manage it without
compromising other vital activities in
your life
well according to mit the process of
reflection
allows us to develop our understanding
more deeply and to make our intuitive
knowledge
more shareable with others it provides
us the opportunity
to take a step back and look at what our
work means to us in our communities
one very very very extremely important
thing that must be remembered
is that reflection should never ever be
thought of as a way to process negative
views about yourself
no one is a complete negative entity
likewise the way we
reflect should be mindful and neutral
not self-hating are the extreme opposite
so let’s take a look at this diagram on
the far left we can see that the first
aspect of reflection is
imagination we all have those gut
feelings or thoughts inside our head
that allow us to consider
possible alternatives to whatever
current situation we are in
for example this can come through
meditation writing reading journaling
painting and a variety of other factors
and these allow us to open our mind to
consider potential alternatives to
whatever situation we are currently in
and to come to a reasonable and mutual
conclusion about the things that we need
to change in our lives
now this brings us to realization the
second part of reflection
as now we are aware that there is
something that needs to be changed to
make our lives more
simple or uncomplicated the realization
can come from anywhere the meditation
the self-help books or even
conversations with other people
here’s a personal example of mine i
actually didn’t realize that
overthinking was a problem of mine until
i talked to my parents about what was
bothering me
after talking to them i realized that
many of my problems were quite small and
unchangeable
essentially it was a simple neutral
conversation that led to a
realization i know some of you might not
be too comfortable or
might be afraid of talking about your
personal problems to other people
however you know what you should not be
as carol d rift states
that sustaining or deepening your
well-being through times of adversity
which is something that can be done
through reflection
through conversations with other people
allows us to have greater health
benefits
thereby underscoring greater benefits of
eudemonia
a greek word for happiness so now that
brings us to the last part of reflection
goal setting and prioritization
essentially this is where we set up a
pyramid of goals based on size and
importance
well goal setting is a critical process
in our lives how
relevant or important each goal is can
vary so that’s why i use this goal
pyramid to help me structure my goals
it’s a way of
putting priorities onto paper
so as we can see that at the bottom of
the pyramid we have the small goals so
some of these goals are we are tasks
that we achieve every day
for example brushing your teeth being
social and a variety of other smaller
goals like writing paragraphs of essays
are things that we achieve every day and
we need to achieve those before we can
achieve the larger or main goals
now i’ll give you an example that you’ll
probably relate to
during quarantine many of you might have
found that you weren’t being as
productive as you would have liked
and might have even said something
around the lines of i need to get back
into a proper routine
now this realization brought us to our
main goal of getting into a proper
routine
now a routine is something that is
practiced continuously
for a long period of time and can lead
to habits
and habits are things that are changed
over the course of approximately two to
three weeks
so there we have established a clear
time frame of planning already
establishing a clear time frame can help
to allow
on how quickly you need to achieve your
goals
and setting a reasonable timeline helps
you understand
how what you need to achieve as well as
avoiding procrastination
now let’s look at the small goals so
these are the smallest parts
that we need to achieve before we can
achieve the larger or main goals
so referring back to the main example of
getting into a proper routine
some of these goals may include not
drinking coffee past 5 pm to refrain
from staying up later than needed
or maybe to set alarms to make sure that
you’re aware of the time
essentially once again these goals need
to be achieved before we can achieve the
larger or main goals
so next we do have the larger middle
goals so these goals
are examples of more complex smaller
goals but
nowhere near as close to the main goal
that we wish to achieve
referring back to the example a middle
goal that we can achieve through this
is going to bed at 10 pm which can be
achieved by refraining
from drinking coffee past 5 pm our
smaller goal
now see this is reflection but the thing
is
if you don’t act on what you do it will
constantly say
as reflection and it will only stay as
prioritization and
other aspects of reflection so you need
to actually act on what you do
in order for your goals to be set in
motion as sean rochelle once said
doing nothing is nothing so while the
reflection through self-help books and
other factors can help you
figure out what you need to be doing
actually doing it is
just as important so let’s talk about
why action is so important
action for one allows us to set the plan
in motion
if you have a plan but don’t actually
act on your plan it will just be
information
the self-help books the meditation the
conversations with your friends your
family your parents and even
i give you will only get you so far
but if you don’t actually act on this
then it will only stay as the
information
for example if you read a self-help book
on carrying stress through constant
meditation but never actually meditate
then your stress will magically
disappear just because you read the book
you actually have to act on it to make
sure that it is
implemented in your life and the next
reason why action is so crucial
is because it allows you to really
understand what is vital
for you to achieve in your life so it
allows you to realistically
understand what you need to be doing
more of for example if we refer back to
the main goal
maybe we thought that in order to get
back into a proper routine
we had to spend three hours exercising
per day
but through action we realized we
weren’t fit enough to do that
so action allows you to realistically
understand where you need to be spending
more time
and more effort the next reason action
is so important
is because it allows you to physically
see your progress
physically seeing your progress is one
of the most rewarding things that one
can experience
it allows you to see where you are in
terms of your goals and scientifically
it allows you to increase the dopamine
and serotonin in your brain
motivating you to continue implementing
your goals
which brings me to the last part of why
action is so important
as we continue implementing our goals
consistently and continuously
this begins to lead to habit now habit
begins to become ingrained in our mind
so once this isn’t great in our mind it
becomes a lot easier to continue
implementing
further goals to achieve the larger goal
for example having an organized desk
space or task area can aid in motivating
this action
another example could be having a simple
to do list
and that essentially is what regular
people do
to motivate the action so effective
action means you prepare
and do which brings me to the last part
of the rag system
grit now grit may be an unfamiliar word
to some
so i’ll tell you what it is in the
shortest possible way
grit was a concept that was created by
angela duckworth
and according to her grit is having
passion and perseverance
grit is having stamina it is sticking
with your long-term goals
grit is living life like it’s a marathon
and not a sprint
although this is a relatively new factor
that can lead to efficiency and success
there are some very strong and probable
correlations between what makes a
grittier person
versus what makes a not so gritty person
and you’re probably wondering well
what is the easiest way to achieve grit
through and
one concept that we can strongly relate
it to was this concept that was
developed by carol dweck at stanford
university
now dwight tested this theory with math
classes at fisk elementary school
and the results prove that motivation
and achievement through positive
reinforcement and positive action
can greatly aid into allowing a person
to have a longer term
impact in terms of achieving a greater
state and
the realization that talent and
achievement is malleable
as well as our brains neurons being
quite plastic can mean so much for your
overall development
now while this is a strong concept that
we can relate
to grit there are other strong
characteristics and attributes of a
person
that we can also relate it to so
courage and the ability to manage
failure is the first characteristic that
we can relate it to
so before i created this system i
realized that i wasn’t handling failure
as well as i thought i was
allowing me to realize this has allowed
me to understand that failure is
just a part of life and having the
courage and ability to continue
implementing new goals and do things
that scare you
are what the more gritty people
implement now in terms of the big five
personality traits
many have found that grittier
individuals are often more associated
with the personality trait of
conscientiousness
essentially what conscientious means is
more achievement oriented
now shown through lm huff these
individuals have shown to have better
proficiency
and an overall higher grit score the
next
attribute that that is compromised
when we look at it for grit is looking
back at the goal pyramid so when we look
back at the goal pyramid if we carry
this out through
action it can lead to quite a positive
impact
so it overall creates a better grit
personality adding to the contribution
of creating this factor
so the next point that we can relate it
to is resilience
resilience is a very strong
characteristic and zolin combines
optimism creativity and confidence to
create this characteristic
essentially if you’re only looking at
your goals as something for the short
term but not for the long term
then your potential achievements and
growths will only change for the short
term
but not for the long term and greater
people are those who
strive to achieve their goals for the
long term
now the last characteristic is something
that i struggled with quite a bit
there is a large difference between
excellence and perfection
excellence is simply doing the best you
can to the best of your ability
whilst perfection is really nearly
impossible to achieve
i was so fixated on doing all of my
tasks as perfectly as i could
which led to neglecting other tasks and
overall procrastination
essentially what you need to do is
strive for excellence not perfection
so you see you can really achieve
anything you want to if you want to
you reflect by imagining a scenario
realizing it needs a change
and setting goals and priorities related
to it you act by carrying
out through those plans and achieve a
grid state when you have a growth
mindset and implement characteristics
relevant to it
with those three steps followed in the
arrive order you can really do
anything you want within the bounds of
society so it’s time for you
to stop hitting snooze on what you want
to do what you want to achieve
your goals and what you know is
important for you to change in your life
it’s time for you to get out of bed into
the world knowing you have a way to
achieve your greatest possible potential
through three simple aspects reflection
action
grit the rag system