Environment Is Key

If you’re unhappy you can’t simply look at yourself, this can lead to self sabotage and be very detrimental. You have to look at what is in your environment. Your environment becomes your reality. From the people you allow in your life, to your job, to the food you eat, to the content you consume. It all contributes to who you become in life. Some areas of your environment may have less impact than others, but they still all contribute to who you become. Surround yourself with heavy drinkers, you will most likely pick up the same habit. Eat junk food all the time and you will feel miserable. Consume pointless content and you will never find direction.

I didn’t realize this in my teenage years and my early twenties. I was simply surrounding myself with the easiest and most comfortable influences I could find. Friends at work were the easiest people to hang out with, so I did. And while a few of those people have now become lifelong friends and are incredible influences in my life, the majority at the time weren’t of any value. Fast food was the easiest way to eat a meal, so I did, like every single day and that food made me feel awful, even at a young age. I didn’t consume social media back then because it wasn’t relevant yet, but I did listen to music. And what was the most accessible music? What ever pop music and hip hop music was playing on the radio. So I listened to that music and while it wasn’t the worst influence I had in my life, it didn’t bring any value to my life.

When I allowed these influences in my life I had this overwhelming feeling of being “stuck” in life. I wasn’t progressing in my business at that time, I wasn’t in a quality relationship and I didn’t have a clear vision of what I wanted for my future. I would have some ideas but I wouldn’t put the effort in to pursue them and if I did pursue them, it was always half heartedly.

I was still very young at the time and I don’t feel you need to know what you want in life at such a young age, but this way of thinking and these influences went on way too long. I was just seeking out whatever distraction I could find and this was my Achilles heal. I created an environment for myself that was so detrimental looking back, but at the time it just felt like “life”.

But eventually I realized I was preventing myself from being able to grow. I had formed this cocoon around myself where I felt comfortable, or what I thought was comfort, and everything felt familiar. But, little did I know that this comfort would eventually turn into the biggest discomfort in my life.

I feel like we are all meant to grow and prosper throughout our life, we are not  meant to stay in the comfort zone of life. When we stay in the comfort zone of life too long, it becomes heavy and hard to handle and our dreams and ambitions seem to feel further and further away. When in reality, they are still as close as they ever were. We just have this wall up, and that wall is made up of a nice supple lining of comfort. We need to tear this wall down and allow the positive influences in this world to flow in and stimulate our growth. Our growth toward our dreams, our growth in our family life, our growth in our marriages and growth in any other healthy area of our lives.

So if you’re feeling stuck in life and you feel like you’re not growing, take a look at yourself first and make any changes you deem necessary, but then take a real good look at your environment. Are the people you’re interacting with healthy for you? Is the social media you’re consuming pointless and a time suck? Or is it content that is good for you and your soul?

When a plant doesn’t grow, we don’t look at the plant, we look at the plants environment. We check the soil, we check the amount of sun it’s getting, we check how much water it’s getting. I learned to do the same for myself and it has been life changing.