In this introductory episode, meet your host Ela Miranda (she/her), and get a peak into her journey of self-discovery and system building. This episode illustrates how the framework of compassionate self-reflection and intentional system design she created when adapting to life’s changes can be applicable to others, especially as a neurodivergent individual.
Topics Covered
Introduction to System Design
- The importance of intentional and adaptive system design in every area of life. [00:02:04]
- Discussion on the interconnectedness of life aspects and their impact on personal and business realms. [00:04:42]
The Inception of Rain or Shine
- The personal journey towards understanding and implementing system design in daily life. [00:08:07]
- The realization of the power of small adjustments and the role of self-compassion.
The Philosophy Behind Rain or Shine
- The belief in self-expertise and the significance of self-advocacy.
- The concept of designing systems that are both intentional and repeatable for sustainable results. [00:15:26]
Case Study: Accessibility and Intentional System Design
- A practical example of applying system design principles to accommodate unique needs. [00:10:20]
- The importance of understanding personal situations and needs for effective system design.
Conclusion and Takeaways
- Emphasizing the role of reflection, experimentation, and the need for personalized accommodations.
- Encouragement to engage with systems thinking and intentional system design for personal and business growth.
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Click here to read a transcript of this episode
Ela Miranda: Holi Holi, and welcome to Building Blocks and Puzzle Pieces. This is a Rain or Shine podcast, and I am your host, Ela Miranda. I’m so excited to welcome you here under our umbrella and to dive into how to build your own accommodations, the building blocks you need to get there, and the puzzle pieces that you might need to solve along the way.
[00:00:17] I believe that you’re the expert in your field and I’m here simply to help you focus on the things that have already worked for you. My goal is primarily to teach you a new way of thinking. That will give you a compassionate framework so that you can solve every new problem that you will face. I stick stickers on everything. And I secretly think that if everyone had a digital white board we’d all be expert problem solvers. When I’m not solving problems for fun, you can find me sunbathing with my two cats. Or trying to find the best local vegan spot around.
[00:00:51] So. What are systems anyways? And why am I so passionate about systems design?
[00:01:03] So I believe that a system is a series of intentional repeatable actions. And those actions can be taken by yourself, they can be taken by someone on your team. They can be taken by automation or AI, or any number of tools available. The point of actions being repeatable and intentional is really important. However, because when you are expanding your team, when you are scaling your business, even a, you are simply having a bad day, right. Having a system of easily repeatable tasks is so important and so helpful in building the life of ease that I genuinely believe we all deserve.
[00:02:04] As a neurodivergent person, myself. I will die on the hill. That there is almost always an easier way that I can be doing things then the way my brain would like me to believe. And so. I have spent years, building my self-reflection process and getting to a point of being compassionate enough with myself to acknowledge my needs. And to be able to accommodate those needs in my business and in my life. And the ways in which I am able to accommodate things. Tends to be primarily through system design, which is, you know, one of the biggest reasons why I’m so passionate about it.
[00:02:56] But I also genuinely believe that. When you build systems that are adaptive to your needs and personal accommodations, whether for yourself or for anyone on your team or, you know, even people in your family, right? Like, I genuinely believe that this process applies to every aspect of life.
One of the biggest principles of systems design and systems thinking, is that every part interacts with the whole, so nothing is ever operating in a vacuum. And so when people ask me about balance, I often respond with I genuinely believe that every aspect of my life impacts my business just as my business impacts my life. And so to me, intentional system design is important in all areas of my life. I specialize in helping folks with their business, personally. But there are so many ways that these same tools can be applied to life in general. And that’s one of the reasons why I started this podcast is because I wanted to have examples.
[00:04:11] I wanted to have a space where people can share their stories and share their needs and the accommodations and the processes that they went through to be able to build those. And how impactful they can be in every area of life, whether that’s business or school or family, or you know, any situation that you find yourself in. Having that framework of self-compassion and accommodation and being able to advocate for your own needs is so, important.
[00:04:42] I came to this realization fairly early on as an adult, as i started going to school and eventually living on my own. I Very very quickly came to the realization that the way that I was doing things was not in my best interests. I never gave myself the time to like slow down and think about what I actually needed. once I got past the point of acknowledgement and research gathering and figuring out what my needs and wants were, I started to build systems in my day-to-day life and in my work.
Honestly, I didn’t even know what system design was. At the time I literally was just doing whatever it took to make doing the actions that I wanted to take easier. So, whether that was putting my meds on auto refill, or making myself my own pantry so that I could stick to creating vegan meals. there were so many different changes that I made. There were so many little details that I was noticing were getting in the way.
[00:06:05] And so I started taking little actions to adjust as necessary. And I realized how helpful that shit was. I noticed how all of these changes were coming at me really fucking fast. And I didn’t know what to do with them. Right. I was struggling. Emotionally, mentally, physically. And I had to unlearn a lot of thoughts and a lot of behavior in order to start making the necessary changes to live my life in a more sustainable and happier way.
[00:06:48] And what I really quickly noticed is that one: I had to take the time to brainstorm. I feel like this is the thing that I tell people the most, all the time. But it’s because I think it is probably the easiest thing to forget, especially in today’s grind and hustle culture. I think we are so encouraged and so accustomed to moving immediately into solutions and ideation and just like. Jumping in, full steam ahead, both feet to the ground, just like running with whatever your first thought is. I think we just try to jump immediately into like project planning and task management and we don’t take the time to sit down and really think very often.
[00:07:43] So that’s, that’s the first point, right? That I’m sure I will harp on. Over and over and over again, no matter where on the internet, you’re finding me. But. The second point is that in order to change both my thoughts and my behaviors needed to change.
[00:08:00] And I noticed That those two worked in tandem. Together in a system, right. They were a constant feedback loop for each other.
[00:08:07] That when I paid attention to my thoughts and redirected my language and my focus. I was able to change my behaviors. And when I made adjustments to my environment and to my resources and to the things available to me I was able to change my behavior and that in turn, changed some of the ways in which I thought about myself. And about the things that I was doing.
[00:08:36] And so I started experimentation. And I started building myself templates. I started to have tools and resources and frameworks that I was developing more accessible to me. The more I learned and the more I tried and the more I recorded of my actions, the easier these concepts came to me. And the more likely I was to succeed on the first or second iteration instead of learning the same lesson over and over and over and over and over again because I was never changing my behavior, my environment. And I started noticing that when I could take intentional action. When I got to a point that my actions were both intentional and repeatable. I would be able to maintain the ultimate result that I was looking for. But that creating that system. Took a lot of time and a lot of intimate knowledge of myself.
And as I started talking to people about it and I started reaching out and talking to my friends and like going through this process with them, I realized that even if you inherently know the necessary information about yourself. When you don’t take the time to like really sit down and think through your environment and the ways in which you’re doing things and how repeatable those actions are and how supportive those actions are. Then it’s really difficult to have the intimate knowledge of those actions necessary to change them and to be more intentional with them.
[00:10:20] I mentioned earlier that I believe that you are the expert in your own life. And that’s a really important principal for me whatever I do this work for someone else. One example that I really love to share is when I was helping one of my friends redo their closet. I was there as a friend to just help work through the emotional process of letting go of items of clothing and, you know, adjusting the space.
[00:10:59] We ended up with a really unique solution because my friend had a unique situation. They have pots. And because of this, they can’t bend down, without passing out. Not always, but especially on bad days. And so. They were sharing that a lot of times in the morning, it would be difficult to get ready for work because they had to bend down to pick up their shoes. And then they would have to sit for a minute to get their equilibrium back before they could even get out the door. And so what we ended up doing was moving all of their shoes in the shoe racks up to the top shelf of their closet, because she’s really tall. And so she’s able to like reach those easily. And it eliminated that problem of having to bend over first thing in the morning. Right? All of the things that were on that shelf were things that were accessed very often. And so it was okay to put all of those on the floor and like switch the situation around a little bit for a solution that would have a dramatic, positive impact on her day-to-day routine.
[00:12:10] And as we were talking about this, And like coming up with this solution to this problem. We were talking about the fact that oftentimes when people come in to organize things, people, you know, come in and start looking at the ways in which you’ve done things in your life. People have a lot of questions. We have certain associations with how things are supposed to be and where you’re supposed to put your shoes my friend has had a lot of experiences where she’s had people come in and they like do things in a way that makes sense for them. But it doesn’t necessarily make sense for her. And we were laughing about it because I was like, yeah, I keep all of my stim toys in my sock drawer. And this doesn’t really make any sense at all.
[00:13:00] I don’t have a particular reason for why they’re in my sock drawer, right. It wouldn’t necessarily like matter to me to have the moved, except for the fact that like, if I moved them, I would not remember where they are. Because I am at this point so used to all of my stim toys being in my sock drawer. And obviously, you know, I try to help people be more intentional about the places that they put things and the ways in which they do things. That is one part of it. Sure. But also the point is that if it works. It’s fine. There’s no need to change it just because it’s something difficult, right? If you can say, Hey. All of my stim toys are in my sock drawer. If you’d like one, feel free to grab one. Then that’s fine. Right?
[00:13:50] And I genuinely believe that the same can be true in your own lives and in your own businesses because everybody does things in a way that is unique to them and their situation and their accommodations. And as long as you have enough intentionality behind it, to be able to explain it to anyone else on your team or anyone else that needs access to those different things. or, to be able to you know, utilize those systems, complete different routines or different tasks. Then that’s okay. Right. You don’t have to be doing things. In the exact same cookie cutter way that everyone else is.
[00:14:31] And I often argue that a lot of the cookie cutter templates and systems and offers that are out there when it comes to business and organization and how you do things. Are often more harmful than they are helpful. Because what I’ve seen is a lot of people simply trying to like shove their really overflowing messy sock drawer into a tiny little box that wasn’t built for their specific use case. And if you don’t have the intentionality behind your actions and behind your systems, then it would indeed be difficult to know what’s going to be helpful to you. Versus what’s going to be a hindrance or what’s going to be not the right fit for you.
[00:15:26] This is one of the reasons why all of the templates and more DIY services that I offer myself. Are based in my own self-reflection process. And I try to offer as many different accommodations as possible. To help you ask the questions that will allow you to utilize these things in a way that is actually useful for you. So that it’s not just one more template that you download and look at and go. I don’t really know how to use this, or I don’t really understand how this is going to be super helpful for me. And so you don’t use it. That’s fine for a free template, right? Like sometimes you just need to like, not start from a blank page. But. I genuinely believe that like that’s what the brainstorming process is for. So that you can sit down and ask yourself questions and not have to start from a blank page because you already have some idea of what your needs are and what accommodations you can make for yourself.
[00:16:29] Yeah. So, if you would like to learn a little bit more about some of my self-reflection processes, if you would like to join a community and play with your systems and play with a practice of self compassionate reflection. You are more than welcome to join us every Wednesday morning at systems recess. It is one of my favorite things that we do. And I would love to see you there. The link to sign up for that will be below in the show notes.
[00:17:02] And of course, if you would like direct one-on-one support with your adaptive systems and building accommodations for yourself. We would love to work with you. Feel free to check out the website below and I am so excited to bring you behind the scenes to show you all of the incredible stories and lives that people are able to live because of their systems and their accommodations and their self-compassion.
[00:17:38] Building a business is not easy. But nobody said that you had to do everything the hard way either. So I hope that this podcast gives you inspiration and ideas and helps you come a little bit closer to living the life of ease that I know that you deserve.
[00:18:00] Thank you for being here. Allowing us to take time out of your day. For listening to the stories that we have to share. Until the next episode, may you find ease and joy in the life that you’re living, rain or shine.
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