A.I. Counselor recounts bombing freshman year with a 1.7 GPA until Dr. Deborah Burnham told him to change his environment. He argues the people, places, and things around you either push you toward your goals or pull you away, and challenges you to audit what stays and what goes.
So today I want to talk to you about your environment. So after my freshman year of college, I had a 1.7 GPA and I received this letter from the Dean saying that I was being encouraged to find somewhere else to spend my time. I was academically exposed from the school. And I remember going to her office and meeting with her, Dr. Deborah Burnham. And I'm meeting with her, and I remember her looking me in the eyes and saying, jeb, you need to change your environment. And I remember at 18 years old, this didn't quite make sense. And I raised a question, what do you mean? And she said, the people, places and things in your life are not supporting you. And over the years, I look back on that pivotal moment, and during this conversation with her, I was able to encourage her to allow me back in, to give me one more chance. But I think back on that conversation. Often the people, places, and the things in your life either support you or they bring you down. You see the people that you spend time with, Are they moving you forward? Are they inspiring, inspiring you? Are they motivating? Are they living an example for you to step forward? Or are they being a good example of a bad example? Are they discouraging you? Are they encouraging you to go down a different path, away from your goals? And certainly the places where you spend your time can have such a huge influence on the direction of your life. Are you spending time in places that is jeopardizing your health or discouraging you from stepping forward in your life? Are you spending hours and hours at a bar as opposed to hours and hours of working on your craft? Are you surrounding yourself with things that are weighing you down? Is your cupboard full of food options? That is making your health a second option in your life? Are you filling your life full of things that are meaningless to you, but fill your bank account with. With nothingness? My encouragement to you right now, my encouragement to myself, is to take a close look at your environment. Your environment creates your life. The people, the places and the things either support your goals or they pull down on your goals. They pull your life away from your life of intention and direction. So the words of Dr. Dean Burnham coming back to me regularly, does your environment support your life or does it discourage your goals? Challenge for myself. Challenge for you to take a look at your environment, make sure that the people, places and things move you forward and every single day, go out there and seize your legacy.
