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Lessons learned from being both in great and in mediocre environments

Two days ago, I landed in Medellín, Colombia. I had “prepared” everything to be ready on my arrival. I had found a nice bedroom in an apartment with locals, I had found the gym I would go to, and I had found the coworking space I would be working from.

I was excited to start my productive activities once again.

A few weeks prior to that, I was on vacation in Costa Rica. The weekend that followed I was at a friend’s bachelor party. Then the next week was his wedding. Needless to say, not much was done towards my own goals.

Even though all that was fun, I felt like my own life wasn’t moving forward.

The reason I was so excited to come to Medellín was that, since the past two months, it’s the first time I won’t be moving around or doing all sorts of activities outside of my productive ones.

For the first time in two months, I’ll be in an environment I can thrive. I’ll be able to get to a routine that I know works perfectly for me.

In case you’re wondering, here’s how I build my morning routines:

A Morning Routine Really Does Set You Up For Success — Here’s A 6 Step Process To Create One

What do you even mean by “thrive”?

Thriving to me means accomplishing the productive goals you set for yourself in the timeframe you decided. When your goals are productive, they’re working towards something greater than yourself; you become a better person. The more you can accomplish your goals, the more you’ll thrive and be happier. The happier you are, the more happiness you bring to the people around you.

This past 12 months, I’ve thrived as I had never thrived before. I put myself in near-perfect environments, built impeccable routines, applied proven principles, and built undeniable habits.

Most of that I’ve written about in the following piece:

23 Key Principles For Building True Momentum And Becoming Unstoppable

Feeling stuck?

How are your habits? Good? Bad?
What’s your routine like?
Are you in the right environment to thrive?

These questions are FUNDAMENTAL, yet not many people ask themselves. Pro productivity tips will have close to no impact if you’re not in an environment that allows you to have a strong routine and help you build good habits while dropping bad ones.

Two months ago, I went back to Toronto to live on a friend’s couch, and truth be told, I was back on my bad habits. I didn’t exercise. I didn’t walk. I ate junk food. I played video games too frequently. I drank more. All that was counter-productive.

But I couldn’t help it. Somehow, I had become what I used to be before the massive growth I felt months before that.

When I moved to Cambodia a little over a year ago, I found the right environment for me to thrive in. Then when I moved to Spain a few months later, I expanded upon the idea of setting a perfect environment for myself. I did the same, to some degree, in India when I was there for 3 months.

During that time, I :

started 3 businesses,
wrote 2 books,
wrote 300+ articles on Medium.com,
became a top writer in 16 categories, including #1 in Travel and #5 in inspiration,
started an accountability program,
learned 36 new skills,
read 10 books,
lived in 5 countries,
met incredible people,
and more.

You may not have the same goals, but wouldn’t you want to thrive like that?

I had never really written before January. Yet here I am with two books out on Amazon and 300+ articles on Medium.com. I knew nothing about coaching, yet now I do light coaching in my accountability program.

When you thrive, you get out of your comfort zone and achieve so much more than you ever thought was possible.

What’s a bad environment to thrive?

In short, any environment that makes it hard for you to accomplish productive goals you set for yourself.

It’s an environment that promotes bad habits and makes it hard to form good ones.

It’s an environment that promotes negativity and denies wellness in your mind.

It’s an environment where too many things change too quickly that you don’t have time to adapt.

On the flip side, it’s an environment that doesn’t change fast enough that you’ve become too comfortable and complacent.

If you wake up in the morning and find it hard to have the “courage” to do what you set out to do, chances are you are not in the right environment. Back in Cambodia, Spain, and India, waking up around 5am wasn’t even hard for me. When I was in Toronto for a month, living on my friend’s couch, waking up at that time was always difficult.

What’s a good environment to thrive?

A good environment is obviously the opposite of what I mentioned above. It’s one where you can easily accomplish your goals, form good habits, and changes fast enough.

But beyond all that, it’s one where you live a healthy lifestyle, where you eat quality food and exercise regularly. Many studies have proven that eating healthy and exercising improves your energy levels. And the more energy you have, the more you can work towards your productive activities and thrive.

Also — and potentially the most important — it’s an environment where you’resurrounded by people with a positive mindset who are also aiming to thrive.Here’s my favourite quote of all times:

“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” — Jim Rohn

I couldn’t have said it better, and I couldn’t attest to its truth enough. People are the most fundamental aspect of your environment. There’s nothing the thrive for if you’re alone. You can’t become a high achiever if everyone around you drags you down.

That’s why teams in sports are so powerful. The team is much stronger than the sum of its parts. When you surround yourself with like-minded people, you are motivated to do everything you set out to do and you accomplish so much more.

How can I change my environment?

For everyone

If we agree on what makes a good and what makes a bad environment, we can conclude the following:

One of the first things you’ll need to think about is the people you surround yourself with. Start with the five you spend the most time with. Note what’s good and what’s about your relationship with each of them. Ideally, there wouldn’t be any “bad”. If there is, figure out the best way to get rid of the bad. Some people would say remove that person from your life, but that’s bad advice. You can’t get rid of everything that’s not perfect. In fact, I’d argue that making an effort to make relationships work makes you much stronger and better at building long-lasting, healthy relationships.

The second thing I’d start looking into is physical activities. What’s around you currently that would help you with that? Is there a gym? Is there a sport you can practice? Can you jog or bike around? If you can’t answer “yes” to any of these questions, you really should consider making a change. You could move, but you can get equipment to exercise. Whatever is easier for you.

The third thing I’d start looking into is sleep. Is your bed comfortable for you? Is your room dark enough? Is your room quiet enough? What can you change to answer “yes” to these three questions? Back when I was living in Toronto, our bedroom was facing a loud bar outside and there was a street light right next to us. It was a terrible environment to sleep. We moved our bedroom furniture in the den area, which was as far away as possible from these two annoyances. Our sleep quality improved drastically.

The fourth thing would be eating healthy. To be honest, this ones comes for free for me when I exercise. I don’t want to waste all my effort working out, only to eat something counter-productive to that hard work. As much as I can, I try to find local markets for meat and vegetables. Most of the time, I cook my own meals because I know what’s in my food.

So, if you improve your social circle, do physical activities regularly, get quality sleep and eat right, you will be in a productive environment.

For nomads

In the past two days, I’ve met people doing Remote Year here in Medellin, and even though it sounds like fun, I would never do it. At least, not if my goal is to be productive. The worst for me is that they change country or city every month. From my experience, one month in the same place is not enough to be considered a good environment. One month is the time you need to get used to your environment and start building productive routines.

If you’re a nomad like me or thinking of becoming one, I strongly suggest at least two months per city. The first month is for getting familiar with the environment and the second month is to make good contacts. From there, you can start to thrive in your environment.

The first step for me is to make sure I have a place where I can have good sleep hygiene. Sleep is the most important aspect of replenishing your energy. Dorms are NOT good for that. You need a private room at least, with roommates that won’t disturb your sleep.

The second step for me is to make sure I have a good place to work from. Some people can work from home, I can’t. My go-to place to work from is a co-working space. Some people do coffee shops, but I’d argue it’s not that productive; you’re stressed with deciding when you should purchase something next, in fear of “leaching”, but also you feel bad for going every day for an extended amount of days. Plus, you’re not guaranteed to have a seat or that the seat will be comfortable. You don’t worry about these things with a co-working space.

The third step is to make sure you live close to everything you need — a workplace, a gym, grocery stores, local markets, fun activities, etc. If you are trying to optimize your environment, this will surely make your life easier, save you time, and help you live a healthier lifestyle.

Conclusion

By now, I hope we agree that it’s very difficult to thrive in the wrong environment. You should now have a better idea of what is a good and what is a bad environment, and how to adapt or change your environment to be productive.

I wrote about that because I’ve seen the power of being in the right environment. I used to be just a regular guy, coming back from work, playing video games and not thriving. All that changed with a simple change of environment. Then when going back to the previous environment, I become who I used to be.

I wrote this story because I want you to realize that if things are not going well for you, that can change, and one of the easiest and most productive ways to do it is to change what’s affecting you — your environment. You do have the power to change it so it can work for you. Apply the tips above, make more research. Act on this.

You can do this!