Is Your Environment Sabotaging Your Health Goals?

"Environment is the invisible hand that shapes willpower." — James Clear

Last week I was in Sedona, Arizona for a business mastermind.

After the event I was commenting to a friend about how the MOST valuable part of the experience was not the advice and coaching I received,

It was being in the room with a group of driven and successful entrepreneurs...each with different backgrounds and types of business, but all with the shared values of growth and impact.

And the reason it was such a benefit to be in that room is because,

Environment shapes behavior.

You might be familiar with some common "environment shaping" pieces of advice from the world of health and fitness like,

Store fruits and veggies in the front of the fridge, put chips and cookies in the back of your cabinets, keep a water bottle on your desk...

All of which are helpful suggestions.

But physical environment is only ONE type of environment that will have an impact on your behavior...and we often don't have FULL control of it (like at your workplace, or if you share your living space with people who keep buying cookies, or you know...if you simply go out in public).

Which is why it's important to:

1. Focus on what you CAN control.

2. Consider the OTHER types of environment that could be impacting your behavior.

Inside my Empowered Eating Blueprint program, we focus on 3 types of environments that help support the behaviors you want to engage in.

Those 3 types of environments are:

1. Physical: your home, workplace and things that surround you

2. Social: the people you know, interact with and spend time with

3. Intellectual: the ideas, beliefs and content you consume

And if you've been struggling to stick to healthy habits and create meaningful change in your life,

Then chances are that one or more those 3 environments is making it hard to change.

Because when your environments are working against you,

You'll need to constantly use self-control which, as you may have noticed, gets to be exhausting...

As Chip and Dan Heath say in their book Switch,

"Change is hard because people wear themselves out."

So what should you do instead? 

Well, like I said earlier, we rarely have full control of our environments and therefore can’t remove every possible temptation or source of stress from our lives.

But, success doesn’t only come from reducing or eliminating the negatives...

It also comes from increasing the positives.

So, while you can't block out all the "bad influence" kinds of environments in your life,

You CAN be intentional about creating, surrounding yourself with, and putting yourself into the kinds environments that encourage the behaviors you want to engage in.

And this is especially important during the holiday season, when you are bound to find yourself in unsupportive environments more often than any other time of the year.

Which is why I wanted to give you a heads up that something BIG is coming your way for Black Friday.

I've put together a Black Friday bundle that will not only help you build the supportive environments you need during the holiday season, but will also gear you up to hit the ground running with your 2024 health and wellness goals. 

But because it’s a Black Friday deal, you’ll only have a limited window to sign up.

And since I know your inbox will probably be flooded with other holiday deals, I wanted to make sure I gave you a heads up so that you don't miss it.

So, keep an eye on your inbox for that Black Friday announcement.

And in the meantime, I encourage you to reflect on the following question,

In what environments am I the MOST successful with sticking to my healthy habits?