Your environment around you may be the most important determining factor of your success.
Your environment has the ability to place you in certain states of mind and modify your genes; it sets the tone for your attitude and how you feel.
Your environment consists of many things… it consists of the music you listen to, the content you take in on social media, the news you take in, the foods and drinks you take in, the people you are around, and your physical environment.
Is the physical environment where you work inspiring? Is it aesthetically pleasing? Do you feel great about being in this environment every day?
What’s the meaning you are ascribing to the environment around you? If you dislike it that will carry over into your performance and other areas of your life. If you love it, it will support your growth.
“You cannot heal in the same environment where you got sick.” -Unknown
We need environments that feel sympathetic to our needs and what’s best for us so that we always feel ready to grow.
The most important influence on success is our mental environment, what Tom Brady refers to as your “inner-environment.”
What are you thinking about each day? What are the beliefs about yourself and the world that you are cultivating? Are these empowering thoughts or disempowering thoughts that you are constantly cycling through?
Your beliefs are running the show.
The father of the field of epigenetics is Dr. Bruce Lipton. He has written several books on epigenetics such as “The Wisdom of your Cells” and “The Biology of Belief.”
Epigenetics is the study of how your behaviors and environment can cause changes that affect the way your DNA works. Unlike actual genetic changes, epigenetic changes are reversible and do not change your DNA sequence, but they can change how your body interprets a DNA sequence and subsequently how you show up and respond to your life.
Why is this important to know?
It’s important to know because knowing this will help you audit your environment 360° all the way around. Look at the reality as it is and get really honest with yourself about it. Is everything in your environment enabling you to more easily reach your daily performance potential or does your environment feel like a constant uphill battle?
The question is, does the environment around feel in agreement with you?
Does each thing in your environment have resonance with you? If it does then you will experience what’s known as constructive interference. A loved one, a piece of music, a piece of food, or visual landscape will meet your 5 senses and then you will experience resonance and joy. What’s occurring is two waves are coming together to make an even greater wave. You will experience greater and greater waves as joy, happiness, excitement and so on. Think about when two waves come together in the ocean, they make an even bigger wave!
Now the inverse.
If the environment around you does not feel in agreement with you, it will actually chop down your vibration; your waves. You will experience this as low energy, tiredness, lowered vitality, and sometimes negative states of mind. This is known as destructive interference.
Again, your environment is everything that is coming into contact with your 5 senses and your mind. It’s everything that’s physically around you, everything that your system is taking in, and most importantly what beliefs about yourself and the world you are creating and embracing each day.
Notice on a moment to moment basis if your environment is chopping down your vibes or building you up and making you feel great. The easiest example of this is to be around a best friend or a loved one. The chemistry is natural, easy, and it always feels great.
The opposite of course is to be around an enemy looking to cause you pain. If you let this type of person into your environment you may become entangled with this person to the point where even the thought of this person will generate a reaction like negativity, anger, and other uncomfortable states of mind. Having your waves chopped down will distract you and slow you down.
“The number one reason people fail in life is because they listen to their friends, family, and neighbors.” -Napoleon Hill
I would make one exception to what Hill is saying. If you have friends and family that are truly supportive, build you up, and wish for your greatness then they are an asset. If you have friends and family telling you all the reasons why you can’t do it, then they are a liability. This does not make them bad people, it’s just that oftentimes our loved ones have their own idea of what is best for us, which is often the path of least resistance that keeps us protected and safe. Extraordinary growth happens outside of our comfort zones where we are taking risks and putting it all on the line.
Take vigilant notice of what you are allowing yourself to be exposed to. If you really don’t like it then don’t keep focusing on it and let it go. If lots of people in your life or daily workplace are negative and are constantly chopping you down then it may be time to redesign your environment.
You want those around you that are inspiring and will encourage your dreams. You want those around you that will help you feel that you have everything you need inside of you to execute. You want those around you that help you feel more like the “true you.”
If you find yourself in an environment where everyone around you is thinking the same and you do not find it motivating you have three choices. Choice 1 is to be consumed by the negative culture around you. Choice 2 is to be strong, follow your truth, and swim against the stream. And Choice 3 is to be the change you seek and lead others in a new direction that transforms the culture around you.
Show, don’t tell, what greatness is.
There are times to swim with and times to swim against. That comes down to wisdom and knowing what’s good for you and what it isn’t good for you.
The way you design your environment comes down to self knowledge and knowing what is going to build you up and what is going to chop you down.
It’s all a choice and you get to design it all.
Discern and know exactly what you want.