Create the Environment

I don’t want to be a product of my environment; I want my environment to be a product of me” —Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson) in “The Departed.” The opening line and quote from this movie set the scene for the events to follow. It is a commanding quote and is an idea we can, and should, apply to our own lives. We are who lead our own lives. We are the driver to what we want to accomplish and we have the power to create the outcome. Change the environment so it reacts to you, not the other way around.

By being a “product of our environment” we are passive with our life. We fail to run in the morning because our running shoes are in our closets and out of sight. We fail to eat the salad because we have to prepare it instead of just grabbing the bag of chips. We fail to read the book on our bookshelf because the PlayStation remote is on the couch and playing games is a click away. When we are passive with our life, we fall back into what is easiest. We let old habits emerge and take over. We are controlled by the circumstances around us. Flip the script and control the environment to make it a product of you.

By making the “environment to be a product of us” we are active and in control of our life. We are fully in the driver’s seat of what we encounter. We go for the run in the morning because our running clothes were laid out the night before and we wake up ready to go. We eat the salad because we removed the chips from the pantry and have the salad meal-prepped. We read the book because we left it on the couch and unplugged the PlayStation. When we are active with our life, our environment becomes a product of what we choose to make it. We are able to push to find the greatness and changes we seek. We dictate what is around us because we are tired of being puppets to the world.

Creating the environment as a result of our actions requires deliberate thought and effort. We cannot create our environment if we sit idly by. We must set aside time to plan, to plot, to create a vision for what we want to create. Our creation will be the improvements in our life that will be aided by a morphing environment. Choose to act. Choose to change. See your environment follow suit.