How in control are you really? Have you ever heard the phrase, “you’re a product of your circumstances?” It’s not totally true.
What’s more true is that you are a product of your response to your circumstances. Meaning you have a lot of freakin control. You have the power to decide. Next month I’ll talk about decisions and how foundational they are for your personal and professional success in 2022. But before I can do that, we have to talk about the world in which you are making those decisions: your environment.
If you’re not aware, your environment will shape every aspect of your life. Environment affects your behaviors: whether you will buy, eat, move, rest, recycle, take the stairs, sit or stand, even what mood you will be in. And of course we know that the environment (as in pollution, UV exposure, weather, and more) affects your health and safety.
You cannot always fully change your environment immediately. When you can, you need to know how. When you can’t, you need to be aware so you can counter it the best you’re able. This is the only way to achieve your goals, whether the goals are to save money, lose fat/gain muscle, look younger, recycle more, or sleep longer.
Over the next few weeks we will explore how you can “shape your path,” as Chip and Dan Heath to describe it. We will look at how music, field of vision, scents, the built environment, your refrigerator, and more can be used to nudge you toward or away from success.
For now, start paying attention to your surroundings. When you remember to, ask yourself why you did something. Or why you didn’t do something. See if you can identify the environmental nudge.
For example, did you throw something out in the trash that could have been recycled?Why? Probably because the trash can was more convenient. What about the elevator? It too is probably more convenient and in plain sight compared to the stairs.
What are you controlling and what is really controlling you?
References
Burgess, A. (2012). ‘Nudging’ Healthy Lifestyles: The UK Experiments with the Behavioural Alternative to Regulation and the Market. European Journal of Risk Regulation, 3(1), 3-16. doi:10.1017/S1867299X00001756
Cardoso, B. F. (2019). Olfactory purchases: How does scent influence the consumer's decision-making process? [Dissertação de mestrado, Iscte-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa]. Repositório Iscte. http://hdl.handle.net/10071/19445
Handy, S. L., Boarnet, M. G., Ewing, R., & Killingsworth, R. E. (2002). How the built environment affects physical activity. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 23(2), 64–73. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0749-3797(02)00475-0
Spence C. (2020) Atmospheric Effects on Eating and Drinking: A Review. In: Meiselman H. (eds) Handbook of Eating and Drinking. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14504-0_119
