Control Your Environment

Your environment applies to everything that surrounds you, and it is an important factor in your success. As Craig Ballantyne says, “The people, places, and ideas you expose yourself to will determine who you will become and what kind of life you will live.”

As an example of the impact of environment, consider two seeds taken out of the same seed packet. Plant one in rich soil, give it plenty of water and sunshine, and it will grow healthy and strong. Put the other in rocky and poor soil, with insufficient water and sun, too much heat or too much cold, and it will struggle to survive, much less thrive. Same seed, different environment, very different outcomes. Make sure you are controlling your environment to help you thrive. First, let’s consider the people in your environment.

Personal Development leader Jim Rohn’s most famous saying is “You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with.” He says this is true in every way: your physical health, your wealth, your politics, your attitudes and more. Why? Because evolution imprinted in us that there is safety in the pack, so you have an innate desire to be accepted by “your pack”. And as social beings, to be accepted by the pack, we have to become similar to the pack. So you’ll adopt the characteristics of the people you spend time with, and they in turn will move closer to your characteristics.

Research supports this effect. The largest and most thorough study of long-term success in life proved that the single most important determinant of success was not your education, or your parent’s wealth, but your peer group. In fact, your peer group was shown to be responsible for 90% of your success in life.

As an example, if you’re currently hanging around with a bunch of heavy partiers who go out drinking 3 or 4 nights a week, and you switch to hanging out with a group of triathletes, what impact do you think that will have on your health and fitness? The same is true for anything in your life that you want to improve because you will change your thinking and your activities to be more like the people you spend time with, which will change your results and your life.

This has really powerful implications, and it means that you should play both offense and defense. Are there people you’re spending time with who are pulling you down? If so, make a plan to reduce the time you spend with them.

Then, play some offense: identify people you know who exhibit the life success you want, and make a plan to start spending more time with them. Over time, you will start thinking and acting more like these successful people, and you’ll then begin to achieve that level of success.

As Oprah Winfrey said: “Surround yourself only with people who are going to lift you higher.”

Your environment also includes your home, your workspace, your phone and computer, and the media, books, blogs, and videos you let into your life – everything that you interact with.

Earlier we covered the importance of eliminating negative media and instead having only positive inputs. I don’t have any social media at all on my phone or computer. I’ve deleted them all, as well as Apple News. Taking this one-time action saves you so much time, and improves your attitude and life so much. Please try it.

If you work from home, you should have a set workspace, and you need to keep it clean and organized. Clutter and unnecessary objects only serve to distract you. 

Habit experts teach that you want to make bad habits hard to do, and good habits easy and obvious. Approach your environment the same way. As Craig Ballantyne says, “Toss Temptations and Destroy Distractions.” Toss Temptations by removing all social media and news apps, and Destroy Distractions by turning off all notifications, thus improving your environment to allow you to focus on what matters.

If you had a bowl of chips sitting on your desk, it would be hard to avoid eating them – they’d likely be gone within an hour. But if instead, you had all your chips way up high and out of sight in a cabinet that required a stool to get to it, or better yet, simply didn’t have them in your home at all, and instead, you had a bowl of cut up celery and carrot sticks sitting on your desk, you’d be likely to eat those instead. That’s making it hard to do what’s bad, and easy to do what’s good. That’s setting up your environment for success.

As Jason Capital says: “Environment is destiny.” Don’t fight it; use it to your advantage.

So identify your temptations. What in your environment now is tempting you to do something negative, or is distracting you from doing what you should be doing? Write them all down. And then plan how to remove them. How can you set up your environment to make it easier and more obvious to engage in good habits?

Control Your Environment to set yourself up for success.