Why Your Environment MUST Change When You Want To Change Your Life

Choosing to muscle through and be disciplined is actually not going to work, like scientifically not going to work. Because we are so wired to do the things that we have always already done easily. So make the cues of your good habits obvious and make the cues of your bad habits invisible. Hey everyone, welcome back to the show. It's time for another quickie because there's always time to fit in inspiration. And Chris and I are now in our California home for a few months and I couldn't be happier. I love getting back to California. We live in Newport beach area and I'm telling you, the second I get here I'm like, oh my God, the moisture in the air is so freaking amazing. And also I just love the energy here. There's always something going on and I love being right in the center of the activity and living in a walkable neighborhood. Cause when I'm here, I hardly even take my car out. I literally just walk everywhere. And that has always, always been my dream. And so, you know, when we lived in Santa Monica, we had that. And then we moved to Scottsdale for a while into a neighborhood that was not like that. And we do split time partially in Scottsdale and then also in Newport Beach, California. But when I'm here we have the walkable neighborhood and in Arizona it's more of a driving area. So when I get back here, I'm like, yes, I love it and I'm so excited. So I'm already doing all the things, walking non stop and just feel so lit up and inspired. So also, just depending on where you're at in life, I really believe that you should go spend time in the places that give you energy. If you can't live there, go try to spend some time there, maybe book an Airbnb if you can, go visit a friend, go couch surf for a little while, do whatever you can to get in that energy because I think that your dreams get amplified when you're in those areas. So, you guys, I'm still reading Atomic Habits and I'll probably be done with this really soon because it's such a good book if you have not read it. And it's by James Clear and I was reading something in here about your environment and it just really affirmed about the times in my life when I have been able to create new habits, change habits and reach the goals that I want. And not only affirmed it, but it reminded me of how important it is. Speaking of environments, right? Getting yourself into the environments that make you feel really good. So I've always believed that your environment is stronger than your willpower. And the reason that I have believed this is because growing up, I grew up in a family where we just. We bonded over food. We ate food when we were sad, we ate food when we were happy. All of my memories are always surrounded by food. It comforted us constantly. It was a reward. It was there for every single thing. I actually remember a lot of our entertainment being around, going out to dinner. And also our drives. We would take just different drives throughout every single week. I don't know. This is a very Midwest thing that I'm telling you. We'd be like, want to go for a drive when you're bored? And we would go get ice cream cones or burgers, and we would just go drive and get food. And I remember that in the evenings, it was like, we'd have dinner, and then we'd have seconds, and sometimes we'd have thirds. And then right after that, we would have snacks. So all night long, I was snacking. And I just remember thinking that this was who I was and that I would never be able to break these habits. And when I was 13 years old, I ended up going to a friend's house that was a couple hours away. And my parents had dropped me off at her house. Actually, we met halfway and was picked up halfway. Then we drove back with her parents. And when I was there, because it was so far away, they let me stay for a week. And this was the first time that I was away from my family for this long. I think it was actually seven days, or maybe it turned into a little longer than that. And I got to the house, to their house. And at night, when it was snack time, when we were gonna watch some TV and have a snack, I was like, hey, where's your snack drawer? Like, assuming everyone in the world had a snack drawer, because everyone in my family had one. And she was like, what are you talking about? I was like, for snacks? Like, what are we gonna snack on? And she literally looked at me and said, we have apples. And I remember being so disgusted, I was like, apples? Like, rude. What are you talking about, an apple? Like, when you want a snack, you want, like, some Twizzlers, chocolate or ice cream. I wanted all of the above and not an apple. And so I continued, obviously, to stay for the week. And their family was very different. They were super active. We hardly ended up watching tv. We were out all day long playing. We were out running around and doing all the things out in the woods. And then in the evening, her mom Would just cook like a normal dinner. Nothing crazy, healthy, but nothing terrible. And then after that, we just wouldn't snack. And you know, during the day we would just make one sandwich. And that's what it looked like. And I ended up going home and I noticed that my, my clothes were already loose. I went and I felt really good. Like I didn't really have the anxiety that I normally have. I wasn't groggy. I was always a tired kid. Like, I remember not wanting to go out and play ever, because I was just tired because I was eating crap and I felt really, really good. And I went home and weighed myself and I lost five pounds. And I had never done that before. And it was the first time I realized that my environment was stronger than my willpower. That you actually become a product of your environment. And when you get yourself out of the environment that you're in, and I understand that not everyone can do that, that that is going to change your life, that you have to work simultaneously on your environment while you are working on the new habit change. Right while you're trying to eat healthier, you also have to look at the environmental triggers that are making you do it or the environmental people that are triggering that are making you do it. Now it's really interesting, obviously, because I was 13 years old and I have this realization and I have from 13 to 18 to still live with my family. So I really, really struggled with now knowing this fact of wow, when I go somewhere else, when I'm around healthy people, I get healthy. So you can imagine all of emotions that come with wanting to blame, resenting the people that you're around. But then also I really did my best to try to change my as much as my environment as I could. And while I still did get a little healthier, I still really struggled. Meaning instead of doing all the things that they would do in the evening. As soon as I could when I was 16, I got a gym membership and I would try to go to the gym and I would also go for walks and I would try to get out of that environment during the trigger times so I couldn't fully be away from it. But also instead of sitting around and watching TV every night and snacking, I would try to go up to my room and do something else. Whether it was something creative or whether it was talking on the phone to a friend, I would just notice that my environmental cues were the things that were making me do the things. So looking at your life right now, when are you queued up to go and do the habit that you don't want to do, because you don't have to become the victim of your environment. In the book, he says, you don't have to be the victim of your environment. You can be the architect of it. So whether you are of stuck in a place right now where you can't necessarily leave a place, a person, family, whatever that looks like, how can you start to be the architect of something a little different? Because little changes matter. I know right now you might be like, ah, I need to change everything. It's the little minute changes that are going to get you the big changes. And honestly, that's how habits work. The best is shifting them little by little. So instead of thinking that you have to be crazy disciplined, you really need to start looking at how can you restructure your environment. And people would always say to me, after I moved out and got into fitness, they were like, oh, my God, you're so fit. You have crazy willpower. I even remember my mom saying that to me all the time. She'd be like, well, you're just different than us. You have crazy willpower. And I'm like, willpower. I just literally don't let that stuff into my environment. Like, I try my best to not have snacks, like a ton of snacks in my environment. And if I do, I make sure that they're healthy. And even with that, I have to really know what my healthy trigger snacks are. And it's not like I'm perfect. I keep things in the house. I just know that I keep certain things in the house. Like, for me, if I keep a lot of, like, I don't know, for example, I'm trying to think I'm more savory, but if I keep a lot of crackers around the house, or if I keep things out, especially on the counter, I'm gonna snack on them. So if I have snacks, I kind of put them out of sight, out of mind. And also for the healthy habits that you want, whether it's reading or working out, you have to make those things easier, easy. You have to make the tough things hard, or you have to make the bad habits hard. And you have to make the habits that you want extremely easy. So recently I have been trying to take my vitamins again, and I've been having to put them out on the counter, buy a bottle of water. I'm talking, like, even just on the counter wasn't enough, because if there wasn't a bottle of water there, I still was not taking them. I know it sounds crazy. But there's some things that you just have to make that so crazy easy that that's how it's going to happen. So don't wish you were more disciplined. Really start looking at your environment and seeing how you can make these tiny tweaks.

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So I hope that this reminds you that it's not necessarily just you. It is the environment that you are continuing to be in without looking at that first. Because choosing to muscle through and be disciplined is actually not going to work. Like, scientifically not going to work. Because we are so wired to do the things that we have always already done easily. So make the cues of your good habits, obviously, and make the cues of your bad habits invisible. That's what James Clear says. Make the cues of your good habits obvious and the cues of your bad habits invisible. So if you are like me right now, maybe leaving things in plain sight, like books, like your vitamins, having them right there and remembering that in order to shift your identity, you have to really start thinking like that person. What would a healthy person do right now? It's not the big things, it's the little things. Even if it's a healthy person would notice that they need to go to the grocery store and get some more healthy things in their kitchen because they don't have them. So start just asking yourself that and you'd be really surprised some of the answers that come up, right? What would a really productive person do right now? Well, if I'm exhausted, maybe I'd go for a walk and listen to a podcast or just go for a walk to change my environment. Try to go get some more energy. When you start asking yourself better questions, you're going to get better answers. So I'm sending you guys so much love. I'm so grateful for you. Do me a favor. If you love this, text it to someone or share it on the interwebs. Share it on Instagram or social media because that is how a podcast gets out. So if you've gotten value from this at all, I would love if you would share the link with this particular episode on your Instagram. It makes a huge difference, you guys. And I know that if I don't ask, you don't get a result, right? So take that into your life and your business and make sure that you're asking. Because most people want to help. Okay. Until next time, earn your happy.

Bye, everyone.

Sam.