Are we a product of our Environment
Transcriber: Barbara Solana
Reviewer: Hani Eldalees
Are we a product of our environment?
like the great motivational speaker
Jim Roan once said:
You are the average of the five people
that you hang out with the most.
Think about that. You are the average of
the five people that you hang out with
the most. Now, I’m not suggesting everyone
goes change in their friends
and family upon hearing this,
but are you being mindful of who
you’re spending your time with
and who you’re taking your advice from?
We all eventually become a product
of our environment.
We all have different accents. And across
the globe, we speak several languages.
Why? Because we grew up in
different environments.
I grew up in a small country village
with a strong country accent.
And then I moved to Dublin and I spent
several years living there.
And over time, my accent
mellowed and changed.
And I wasn’t very different to the
rest of my family
and all because
I changed my environment.
Something
very interesting that I once read.
If you put a frog in boiling water, what
will it do? It’ll actually jump out.
But if you put a frog in cold water
and you gradually turn the temperature up
it will die. Why will it die?
Because it didn’t realize that
the temperature was rising.
So what does frogs got to do
with their environment?
The reason the frog died is because
it didn’t realize that
the temperature was getting turned up.
And this is indicative of people
in their surroundings.
So often in life, we surround
ourselves with people
and things that are killing our
motivation and our ambition.
And we don’t even realize it.
So step away from the things that are
distracting you from your goals
and where you want to be in life. If
you want to be successful in life,
you need to put yourself around other
successful people.
Success breeds success.
If you want to be healthy,
get yourself around people who
are living a healthy life.
One of the craziest things I’ve ever
heard is people taking their advice
on their career from people who don’t
have a career or don’t have a job.
Why would you do that? I’m not going to
take health advice from somebody who’s
clearly not healthy, not because
they’re a bad person,
but simply because they’re not in
a position to give advice on it.
And a really good way of getting
this is by asking yourself,
would I trade places with you?
This is a really honest way of evaluating
the advice that you’re receiving.
So look at the person who’s
giving you advice.
So whether that personal advice,
business advice,
financial, relationship or otherwise?
And ask yourself honestly, do you
want to be where they are?
If the answer is yes, then by all means
take that advice and act upon it.
But if the answer is no, then
you cannot act upon it.
We cannot allow ourselves to
be conditioned by society.
Society tries to condition
us to think negatively.
You walk into a newsagents or
if you turn on the news,
most of the time it’s negative headlines.
Why? Because negativity sells.
When you were young, you thought
everything was possible.
Ask a kid what they want
to be when they grow up
and they will tell you
they want to
be astronauts, they want to be famous,
they want to be all sorts
of fabulous things.
But as they go through life,
people start telling them that it’s not
possible and they can’t achieve it.
And over time, they start to believe it.
The fear comes from the outside.
It comes from society. It comes from
friends. It comes from school.
It comes from family. And we believe this
fear because we trust these people.
So society actually teaches
us to play it safe.
There’s a theory out there
called the crab theory,
and it’s based on the metaphor of what
happens when you put several crabs in
a bucket together. The crabs will
crawl all over each other,
trying to get out of the bucket.
But in the process, none of
them will actually escape.
Because simply they keep putting
each other back down.
On the contrary, if you put one
crab in a bucket on its own,
it will get out because there’s no
other crabs to put it back down.
This theory is a metaphor for the human
response to self-improvement and others.
So often when we see others advancing,
we consciously or subconsciously
reach out to hold them back.
It’s like the friend trying to get you to
eat the cake
when they know that you are on the diet.
So we can’t let other people
dictate how we’re going to live our lives.
If everyone else puts
their hand the fire,
does that mean that you should
do the same thing?
Well, I hope not, because otherwise
you’re going to get burnt.
So just remember, we all have
the same potential.
And the only thing that is stopping
us is our mindset
and our mindset comes down
to our awareness
and our awareness of our environment.
Is what ultimately is going
to help us to change it.
Nothing changes if nothing changes.
I’ll say that one more time.
Nothing changes if nothing changes.
The definition of insanity is doing
the same thing over and over
and expecting to get a different result.
If you keep surround yourself
with the same people
and you keep submerging yourself
in the same environment
and it’s not one that you aspire to, then
your results are never going to change.
So if you want to take
charge of your world.
Then you need to change how
you act and how you think.
And that starts with you changing
your environment.
Just remember, you’re in control,
and that’s the most liberating
part of all of this.
And the only thing that’s going to
stop you is what surround you.