I. The way we traditionally think of our environment is: the place we spend our time. It is so much more than that.
Your environment is how you spend your time (the information you consume, the places you go on the internet, etc.).
It is also who you spend your time with. All of these elements contribute to a feedback loop that shapes our tastes, interests, ideas and behavior.
II. Your Entire Life is Composed of Feedback Loops
There is an inseparable bond that links our internal and external worlds. What you ingest and consume in a physical, informational or energetic sense is going to be reflected in your internal world. The state of your internal world will directly shape your external world.
A simple example of this that we can all agree on: if you feel confident, people will be more attracted to you/what you have to say. This may lead to more confidence which keeps the cycle going.
Basically, life is a bunch of feedback loops.
This goes in both directions, positive and negative. It has both unimaginably vast implications on our lives, and also really simple straightforward ones: you’re likely to feel good when you eat healthy food. You’re likely to become smarter when you read a lot and spend time with intelligent, curious people.
Once in motion, these feedback loops can have an utterly transformative effect on your life.
It’s not rocket science but it’s still wildly important and somehow we forget that. So, putting all of this together:
Your life is a reflection of the decisions that you make about your environment (which is not just where you spend your time, but also how you spend that time and with whom).
III. A question: What if you didn’t place so much value on motivation/willpower, and instead on shaping your environment?
When I look back on my life, I find it stunning how simple and straightforward it was to build certain habits when my environment was right. When the conditions are right, building a new habit can feel like riding a bike downhill.
I can’t think clearly enough to write when I’m in a noisy room, so I can either spend an enormous amount of energy trying to focus in poor conditions, or I could just get up and move to a quiet room.
Placing your effort and energy in creating the right conditions is often an investment that will pay for itself many times over.
IV. “This life is mine alone. So I have stopped asking people for directions to places they’ve never been.” Glennon Doyle, Untamed
