"Your environment will eat your goals and plans for breakfast," says Steve Pavlina, personal development guru. I shook my head in agreement when I first read this quote.
One way to set yourself up for success is to arrange your environment to make it easier for you to make decisions that support your goals and more difficult to make decisions that move you away from your goals. Instead of focusing on environments that we have little control, for the purposes of this article I'm focusing on environments that we can control.
When it comes to your environment, prevention is worth a pound of cure. Want to eat healthier? Don't bring certain items in the house. If you do have snacks that other family members eat then at least make it burdensome to reach. For example, put brownies on the top shelf of the pantry and out of sight. You know they are there, but the brownies are not staring you in the face each time you open the pantry door.
When I first started training to wake up at 5:30am, I put the alarm clock in my en suite bathroom. I had to get up to turn it off, which made it easier for me to splash my face with water to perk myself up to start my day. No hitting snooze for me since I was out of bed. This small daily tweak made a huge difference in establishing the habit of waking at 5:30am.
Here are a few other examples of how to use your environment to set yourself up for success. Try these tips if you want to do the following:
Work out in the morning:
1. Lay your workout clothes out at night so you don't have to decide what to wear the next day.
2. Prep your gym bag the night before
3. Place socks in shoes so you're ready to go.
Drink more water:
1. Keep water in several different rooms so it's easily available.
2. Keep water in your car and in a small cooler in your car if it's hot.
3. Make water more appealing to drink by infusing it with fresh fruits.
Eat healthier
1. Plan your meals. Prepare what you planned. Eat what you prepared. Keep it simple.
2. Meal prep by washing fruits and vegetables and chopping what you need in advance.
3. Buy healthier snacks and take them with you on the go to keep from getting ravishingly hungry.
I know all of this sounds easier said than done, but tweaking your environment is your pathway to success.
What tweak can you make to enhance your environment so it's an alley instead of a detractor?
Cheering you on,
Asia