5x1: Why "Getting Back to Normal" Is the Wrong Goal | Wednesday, March 25th, 2026

by Monti Pace

The​ 5x1 newsletter​ is a concise and insightful resource around a simple concept: systems achieve goals.

sys·tem [ˈsistəm]
a set of things working together as parts of a mechanism or an interconnecting network.
a set of principles or procedures according to which something is done; an organized framework or method.

1 x Principle of Systemization

Hysteresis is the phenomenon where a system's current state depends not just on where it is now, but on the path it took to get there. When you reverse a force or change course, the system doesn't simply retrace its steps — it follows a different path back, if it can return at all. The history of a system is baked into its present state.

You see this everywhere once you start looking. Economic recessions leave structural unemployment and changed consumer behavior that persist long after GDP recovers. An organizational culture reshaped by a difficult leader doesn't simply snap back when that leader leaves. A friendship strained by a serious conflict isn't the same friendship even after the conflict resolves. A person who has navigated a major life transition is not the same person who existed before — regardless of how much they might want to "get back to normal."

For systems designers, hysteresis has three important implications.

1. Prevention is almost always cheaper than reversal. Because undoing a change typically costs more than the change itself — and sometimes full reversal is impossible — it pays to be deliberate about what you allow into your systems in the first place. Bad habits are easier not to start than to break. A toxic team dynamic is easier to prevent than to repair. A trust violation is easier to avoid than to recover from.
2. "Getting back to normal" is usually the wrong goal. When your context changes significantly, the instinct is to restore what you had. But your system has memory — it has been shaped by everything that happened. The more productive question isn't how do I return to where I was, but given everything that has happened, what is the best system I can design from here? Forward-designing from your current state almost always outperforms backward-reaching toward a prior one.
3. Hysteresis can work in your favor. The memory effect isn't only a warning — it's also a mechanism. Positive changes made during difficult periods can become permanent. The discipline you build under constraint doesn't fully disappear when the constraint lifts. The relationships you deepen during a crisis remain deepened.

When you design systems with intentionality during hard seasons, those systems carry their history too — and that history can be a foundation rather than a burden.

1 x Systemization Quote

"The future can't be predicted, but it can be envisioned and brought lovingly into being. Systems can't be controlled, but they can be designed and redesigned." — Donella H. Meadows

1 x Reflection Question

Where in your life or business are you spending energy trying to restore a previous state — and what would it look like to design forward from where you actually are instead?

1 x Personal System Idea

The "New Normal" Audit: After any significant life change — a new business, a move, a breakup, a new job, a loss, a major transition — resist the urge to immediately rebuild what you had. Instead, give yourself 2–4 weeks and then run a simple audit.

Make two columns.

• In the first, list the systems and routines from your previous chapter that you're trying to restore.
• In the second, ask honestly: does this still fit who I am and what my life looks like now, or am I reaching for it out of familiarity?

Anything in column one that no longer fits your current context isn't worth restoring — it's worth replacing. Design the new version for who you are now, not who you were before. This isn't giving up on your old self. It's honoring the fact that your system has memory, and so do you.

1 x Business System Idea

The Post-Change System Reset (using Claude Cowork): Most businesses accumulate residue without realizing it — folder structures, templates, recurring tasks, and saved processes that were designed for a previous version of the business. After a significant change, that residue quietly governs your forward motion in ways you never consciously chose.

Whenever something significant shifts — a new hire, a lost client, a role change, a pivot — open Cowork, give it access to your working folders, and run a prompt like this:

"Review the files, folder structure, and documents in [folder name]. Flag anything that references [old client / old role / old process / old team member] or appears to have been designed for a context that no longer exists. Produce a simple list organized into three categories: Update, Archive, or Retire."

Cowork will scan your files, read their contents, and surface the accumulated memory of your previous context — the things your system is still carrying that you never consciously decided to keep. You review the list, make the calls, and move on.

The result isn't just a tidier folder. It's a system that's been deliberately designed for who and where you are now — rather than one quietly haunted by who you used to be.