Your Environment
Understanding the factors that sharpen/blunt who you want to be/what you want to achieve . . .
People inspire you, or they drain you – pick them wisely.”
Hans F. Hansen
Let’s talk about a topic that’s barely emphasized these days, a topic I think you should know about, even though it’s a struggle for me at the moment. Who knows if it may come easy for you to implement?
Ambiance
Hol’ up. I’m not taking you to another destination; it’s just another name for the main topic: 'Environment'.
According to Merriam Dictionary, ‘Environment’ refers to the aggregate of social and cultural conditions that influence the life of an individual.
While it may not make much sense to you right now, I need you to notice the word ‘Influence’. I bet you understand what influence means but more importantly, what exactly can influence you?
I remember back then in 2020, I didn’t just set the goal to be intentional about whatever I do in the present because I knew it would influence what will happen in the future. Even though I had little knowledge then, I knew one thing I was supposed to change to align with the goal I’d set was the people around me.
I didn’t really replace the existing ones but I went in search of more (in form of communities) and also moved closely to the people that seemed to be trying then. So there I was, volunteering for stuffs, looking out for organizations I could join.
Interesting Fact: 2020 was the peak of my volunteering interests.
Till today, those things helped kept me on the path towards what I wanted to achieve. However, along the line, I realized there were more to those things.
There is this quote by Jim Rohn that might seem cliche but it’s still golden: “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with”.
So much emphasis is placed on the concept of the influence of people, but even if you are surrounded by the company of five positive people and you don’t have the right character like being open-minded, curiosity, etc, you wouldn’t really be able to maximize that association well.
So it goes to show that it’s beyond even the people you surround yourself with.
PS: Read the previous line again. It’s a lot, digest it first, then continue.
You can be the least smart person in the room initially but when you can say you are already as smart as the rest or even smarter than the rest, you should know better not to confine yourself and be doing ‘Egbon adugbo’.
You have to evolve and go to the next phase. You don’t have to feel bad about outgrowing them.
The journey to our destination can also be strongly affected by our beliefs system (our mentality), our imagined perspective of people (in other words, what people will think), geographical location (where you currently reside), what you consume (information), the current trends you want to follow or are following, and anything else that’ll definitely impact you, etc. I can talk about them each but it’ll be too long for this article.
You just have to ask yourself, “What exactly does not support the person I want to be or the goals I want to achieve?”.
Once you have that figured and you don’t know what to do, please reach out. We can always have a chat about that.
As I’ve come to learn recently, anything you interact with will either rub something on you or you’d rub something on them.
There’s no such thing as a neutral interaction, as I've always believed. The fact that it might not be significant does not mean it’s not there. It’s just subtle.
And that’s why you must go above and beyond to be in the right environment that’d support who you should be even if it means creating one.
A colleague of mine said this some weeks back and it’s also profound.
Joining Organizations is one of the ways you can go about being in the right environment. It gives you the leverage of ‘Community’. It’s another different topic yeah, but it’s still a subset of ‘Environment’ from my viewpoint.
PS: I can’t seem to get some quotes online that supports everything I’ve said, simply because Google thinks I’m asking about my physical environment which is fine cause I don’t have the right prompt, but here’s a quote that is interesting even though it still focuses solely on people and I’d end with it.
You need to associate with people that inspire you, people that challenge you to rise higher, people that make you better. Don’t waste your valuable time with people that are not adding to your growth. Your destiny is too important.
Joel Osteen
Reflect on these words, please 🤲
What exactly is your environment impacting you with? What can you change about it?
Then do it bravely because your excuses won’t be relevant in the grand scheme of things/in the long run 🤌
Thank you for reading this far 🙏
Until next time, keep Living ⚡️⚡️