Priming Your Environment

This week’s quote of the week comes from the Dutch motivational speaker and author Alexander Den Heijer.

I have read lots of his work based around our environment and how to prime it to suit our needs in which to meet our personal goals.

He encapsulated this message perfectly when he said…

“When a flower doesn’t bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower.”

If you now focus on a specific goal that you have struggled with lately, you might find this quote useful to you.

We often put ourselves in the firing line when we don’t meet our own expectations. Perhaps your gym goals have stalled and you feel demoralised by the process. Firstly, the process is something that you must believe in for you to get successful results. So a full overhaul of all of your foundations isn’t what ‘fixing your environment’ means. After all, a flower doesn’t need a tropical rainforest to grow, it might just need a little bit more sunlight at the other side of your desk.

To ensure that you create the proper environment for your gym goals I’ve added a few tips below that should become your positive habit forming actions moving forward. AKA…priming your environment.

* Pack your gym kit the night before. If you’re in two minds on whether you attend the gym today, when your kit is ready to go in the boot of your car then you are far more likely to stick to it than rummaging the drawers for your favourite vest or sports bra during the morning rush.

* Prep your favourite nutritious meals. Batch cook sauces that can be frozen. Defrosting it and making a bowl of pasta or rice is a better alternative than starting from scratch…and if we really can’t be bothered to cook after a long day at work, we resort to takeaways. But you are more likely to stay within your calorie goals by prepping your own meals.

* Be around positive people. Whether it is in the gym or people you hang out with, if you are getting negative vibes from them then ditch them. This might seem like a big decision, after all, this could be a friend you’ve known since childhood or it could be your wife or husband. Talk to them, tell them how you feel, but if you still feel like crap because of what they say and do to you, then move on.

* And on the same theme as above, if it is a job, a gym, a pub or a social group that is holding you back then find an alternative. Find the places that allow you to be you and not what your environment demands of you.

And on that note I’ll finish with a final quote from Alexander.

“You often feel tired not because you’ve done too much, but because you’ve done too little of what sparks a light in you.”