Want to Transform Yourself Quickly? Change Your Environment.

As someone who’s found their way to this article, I’m guessing you’ve got high hopes for your future. How else would you have ended up here and made the decision to start reading?

For many of us including myself, it’s this drive to improve that leads us onto the internet in search of knowledge.

And I’m glad you have that drive – the world needs more badasses after all.

However, as someone on the path to badassery, I’m sure you know that aiming high comes with a price. If you want to have any hope of achieving something big, you’ll need to spend a monumental amount of time working on yourself.

You’ll confront your own character flaws, experience discomfort, and bit by bit, transform yourself into a person you can be proud of.

But life is short. It’s an unfortunate truth. You only have so many hours, days, and years to work with.

That raises today’s important question – If you need or want to make a change quickly, how should you go about it? What methods can you utilise to give yourself the best chance of seeing rapid results?

Fortunately, there’s a simple answer… if you want to change fast, then change your environment.

I know, I know. It seems too simple, or too obvious, or just too ‘something’ to be the solution here, but hear me out.

Human beings are adaptation machines.

We’re remarkably good at adapting to new and uncomfortable situations.

And you don’t even need to take my word for that one. You’ll have experienced plenty of examples in your own life that prove it. Think about the last time you had to make some kind of scary transition. Maybe you started a new job or moved to a new city. Whatever it was, I’m sure it was terrifying while it was happening.

However, after a day or two, it started to feel a little more manageable, right? Fast forward a few weeks and it had probably become a new normal.

That’s the point – we adapt quickly. The discomfort of a new situation is temporary. Even large life transitions are unlikely to be uncomfortable for more than a month or so. Your brain will recalibrate to help you function optimally in the new environment.

This is a big deal, not just because of how it helps you survive in those big life transitions, but because of the implication.

Think about it – what’s stopping you from using environmental adaptation to your advantage?

What’s stopping you from proactively placing yourself in situations and environments that will recalibrate your brain in a direction you want to go?

Examples

Example 1 – If you want to become more extroverted, you could put yourself in situations that demand you spend more time with people. Maybe that means moving into a sales job (*shudder*). Or maybe that means finding some extroverted housemates.

Example 2 – If you want to become more productive during working hours, then leave your current environment and start working somewhere with fewer distractions. If coworkers distract you, find a quiet meeting room and put some giant fucking headphones on to discourage interruptions. It really comes down to understanding the cause of your poor productivity, and moving into a new environment that nullifies that cause.

Example 3 – If you want to improve your sleeping habits, you could remove distractions and bright lights from your bedroom. Remove the TV, dim the lights, put your phone on charge in another room, and place a book on your bedside table.

The point is simple. If you want to grow and change, you can and should change your environment in a way that supports that growth.

Conversely, remember that this isn’t something you have the luxury to ignore. Your environment WILL shape you one way or another. You can be proactive about the direction, or you can ignore everything you’ve just read and leave it to chance. But odds are, your current results are a direct result of the environments you’re spending time in. And, well… you’re here looking to make a change, right?

Always keep in mind how a given environment might influence you.

If your working environment has too many distractions, your scatterbrained ways and lack of productivity will continue (and likely get worse).

If you live with people that have unhealthy eating habits and keep junk food in the house, you’ll naturally eat more junk food as a consequence. All of that time spent in the gym becomes an uphill battle when it doesn’t need to be. 

The message is clear – the environments you spend time in determine who you are and who you become. If you have a vision for who you want to be, you need to change your environments to match that vision. 

The power of environments in the long term.

If you’re still not convinced (seriously, how??), then look at this through a long-term lens.

Imagine two identical people. They have the same character traits, the same lofty ambitions, but they live in different environments.

One lives in a house full of healthy food, books, workout equipment, minimal distractions, and people with similar mindsets. The other lives in the complete opposite – a place filled with distractions and temptations.

Even if the environment is only responsible for 1% of their results, imagine how that looks over 5 years. For almost 2,000 days, the first person is in a house that pushes them to be 1% better every day. The second is in a house that pushes them to be 1% worse.

Those days will add up. At the beginning, it’ll be small, but by the end of 5 long years, both of these people will be in completely different places in life. That’s the power of your environment.

And for the record, I believe your environment to be far more impactful than 1% improvements.

So, what are you going to do about it? Are you going to change your environment into one that pushes you towards badassery? Or are you going to stick with the status quo and hope for the best?

The choice is yours.