How Your Environment Can Shape Your Success

Success isn’t made from only talent and hard work – it’s about the environment that surrounds you. From training facilities to mental headspace, wherever you step foot in, who's around, and how you train directly impacts your performance, recovery, & long-term success.

With this week's newsletter, I want to provide you several key environmental factors that can make or break your progress and how you can ultimately optimize your surroundings for peak performance.

These factors include

Physical Training Environment

If you typically train in a commercial gym. the quality and cleanliness of the facility plays such a huge role. Have you ever walked into a gym and majority of the machines are out of order or when a machine doesn't function normally as how it's supposed to? I recently have and it was the WORST. On top of that, you got dust bunnies lingering around and sweaty a** butt marks from the last person who used a machine? 🤢

Trust me, it goes a long way when a gym can set the tone for its members and I'm glad to say I don't train in one that has these red flags.

If we're talking outdoors, such as track & field, the temperature, altitude, and humidity can all affect endurance, performance, and physical readiness. More importantly, training in varied conditions can enhance an athlete's adaptability.

In addition, it's a plus when the space you train in has recovery practices in place like cold plunges, saunas, compression therapy, and massage recovery which can help play a significant role in maintaining long-term performance.

Mental & Emotional Environment

Who you surround yourself with can truly affect the way you train. There's a reason why gardeners kill off weeds in their garden – it's to keep the garden strong & healthy. If the weeds stay and linger, that "energy" such as essential nutrients and resources are being stolen which will eventually leave the garden unable to flourish.

That is why having the right people that surround you – whether that's a coach, personal trainer, or a friend that's consistent in the gym – will provide those boosts of confidence, accountability, and motivation when you are in need of it.

On the other hand, our internal environment, such as our minds, can also be something we need to consider. When we allow limiting beliefs and negative thoughts to stay within our mindset, we start to eventually believe it because of reminding ourselves of things that aren't true. Do you tell your best friend their mistakes or call out their flaws? I'm assuming not. So that leads to the question; why should you tell yourself those things?

Treat yourself like you would treat your best friend and see what a difference it makes.

Nutritional & Lifestyle Environment

Does your fridge and pantry look like a Whole Foods or Sprouts grocery store or does it look like the Dollar Tree aisles? If the answer is Dollar Tree, then changes need to be made. We need to have readily available foods that are nourishing and good quality to the point where we feel good inside & out. Without it, this can affect our productivity and our health in the long haul. You might not see the changes now but 20-30 years down the line, your body may take a toll.

In addition, how good is your sleep hygiene? Sleep hygiene is the whole routine that you do to prepare yourself until the moment you fall asleep. This can be considered your night time routine and the schedule you follow for sleep. Without good sleep hygiene, you are mainly disrupting sleep quality, recovery, and your overall well-being. If you feel that this is lackluster, reset your routine and let's keep the good habits in place and cut out anything else that doesn't benefit this.

Last but not least, what does your work-life balance consist of? Do you give yourself enough time for other important things in your life? I remember recently that I was in a point in my life where I spread myself too thin. I was doing everything in my power to only see very minimal progress being made. Don't be me.

One good practice to start doing is to ask yourself each time you start a task; "By doing [insert activity], will this benefit me as the person I want to become?"

Takeaways

When you feel like you start to taper off from a good routine, our environment can give us leverage to get back to it.

If you read this far, I hope you can take note of it and hopefully you continue to grow with an environment that you see yourself being in more often.

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