Are you a product of your environment?

16 years ago I arrived at Bristol University, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and having just played rugby in New Zealand for a year, my ambitions were to make it professionally.

An ambition which was extremely difficult to uphold, when my environment was more conducive to drinking and partying.

Whilst early on I did well to stay on course, but we have limited willpower and saying no all the time was like trying to push water up a hill. Sadly, I somewhat became a product of my environment and my professional sporting ambitions became a distraction to drinking and partying, rather than the other way around.

I’ll never know whether had I taken a different approach to my time at university, I would have made it. But I do wish I knew what I do now.

Sadly though, most people are a product of their environment. Roger Hamilton said:

“A lot of people think we are creatures of habit but we’re not. We are creatures of the environment.”

If we allow it to, our environment can dictate who we are. As our environment dictates our inputs, and our inputs determine our behaviours, and our behaviours determine our beliefs, which finally confirm our identity.

Take someone who doesn’t love football, lets call him Jimmie. Jimmie moves to a town that loves football, with some friends who also LOVE football. Jimmie is surrounded by football, and despite having no interest in the sport, Jimmie slowly justifies having an interest in the sport. He starts to watch the odd game here and there. But the trouble is that every behaviour when repeated becomes more alluring.

The more you do something, the more you crave it, even if subconsciously.

Before you know it Jimmie checks all the scores and never misses a game.

This may sound relatively innocent, but Jimmie has allowed his environment to dictate his behaviours and in turn his identity. Jimmie now identifies himself as a football fan. Now I don’t know what Jimmie’s ambitions are (as he is a made-up person) but what if it was to become an entrepreneur or musician — someone that needed to channel their focus and limit distractions. Jimmie’s ambition now has to compete with his time watching football.

I’m not against watching sport or being a football fan, but I want to represent how our environment can dictate our inputs, which slowly start to change our behaviours. Behaviours that can quickly shape our identity, and once we associate ourselves with a certain identity, we do everything we can to protect our identity in our head. Like justifying behaviours that we once considered pointless.

It can be a vicious circle — Environment → Inputs → Behaviours → Beliefs → Identity — and back round.

What about you?

Are you a product of your environment?

Is your environment dictating your inputs?

Has your environment taken you off course?

How has your environment shaped your identity?

Are you living by default?

Instead of our identity being dictated by our environment, we need our identity to dictate our environment.

We need to fall in love with our desired identity and start to design our environment and inputs aligned to that identity.

Our environment needs to be a product of our desired future self.

Little did I know it, but back when I was 14, I did exactly that. I was so in love with the idea of being a professional rugby player, I completely redesigned my environment. I had quotes like

“Stop your complaining and go for that run” and “to be number 1, you must train like you are number 2”,

posted all over my wall. I carried a rugby ball wherever I’d go, read autobiographies of my heroes and studied the game relentlessly. I designed an environment aligned with my desired future self. And it worked… as despite not being perhaps the most naturally gifted, I got pretty good, and by the time I was 18 I had England trials and was one of the fittest on the pitch.

If only I created that environment at university!

But instead, my environment was like a rushing river, going the opposite direction of where I wanted to go. It took a lot of willpower to tread upstream. It was exhausting, trying to ignore all the invites to go drinking when deep down I knew I shouldn’t.

I was fighting against my environment.

Instead, you want your environment to pull you in the direction you want to go, allowing you to save your will power for when it is needed.

Take my environment now…

• I have surrounded myself with people who inspire me, people who are ahead of me and doing what I want to do
• I only follow social media accounts aligned with my desired identity
• I have a whiteboard in my kitchen with my vision, goals and mantras written on
• My fridge is filled with healthy food and very few temptations
• I listen to podcasts and read books that will propel me to my desired identity
• I leave my phone outside of the bedroom at night
• I put my book on my bed as a reminder to read before I sleep
• I leave my gym clothes out by my alarm clock
• I plan my next day the night before
• I plan my workouts on Sunday, along with my deep work and other essentials
• I leave my journal on top of my laptop, as a reminder to journal before starting to work
• I close down everything apart from the thing I am working on to help me get into deep work
• I have taken off all notifications from my phone so I am on my phone less with my wife
• I leave my phone at home when I go out for dinner or walks, so I am fully present

I have designed my environment to be aligned with my desired identity.

And, the beauty of aligning your environment with your desired future self, is that life becomes less of a struggle. It becomes beautiful — as you’ll be living and behaving totally in congruence with who you want to be, your authentic self.

The vicious circle is now a virtuous circle: Desired Identity → Environment → Inputs → Behaviours → Beliefs — and back round.

So now it’s your turn…

So, who do you want to be?

What is your vision?

Is your current environment helping you live in congruence with your vision? Or are you fighting against it?

How can you redesign your environment to propel you there?

Who can help you in you achieving your vision?

Who can you model?

Who can you share your boldest visions with?

Who energises you and brings out the best in you?

Who drains you and brings you down?

What accounts should you unfollow and follow on social media?

What books should you read?

What podcasts should you listen to?

What should you stop watching, and start watching instead?

What reminders can you leave for yourself around the house, or on your phone or laptop?

Is your fridge and pantry making healthy eating easy, or are you having to rely on will power?

Can you change your route to work, so you don’t walk past the nice bakery with the tempting croissants?

And sweat the small stuff, as this stuff matters!

Who YOU truly want to be is your innate self, it’s your soul, it’s your truest desire, and from living in congruence with that person — fulfilment is born. Don’t fight against that by being a product of your environment. Fall in love with your future self, and create an environment that will propel you there!