Achieving Your Goals Part V – Change Your Environment

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“The character of the environment affects the quality of life and the value of property” – Justice Stevens

Changing your environment is an essential element of success. It is one of the reasons that drug rehab centers and boot camps exist. But you need not go to those extremes to achieve your goals. Small changes will work wonders. There are two types of changes that you need to make: positive changes and negative changes.

Negative Changes

Negative changes involve removing from your environment any negative things that might distract you from your goal or prevent your from achieving it. This is the reason that you need to go through your kitchen and remove all fattening stuff if your goal is to lose weight. So when your resolve is weak, you have nothing to tempt you. People who are trying to quit smoking often must avoid bars and parties where they usually smoke, at least initially. If you are trying to quit watching television, you might want to stop subscribing to your cable.

This might sound drastic and unusual, but that is just what you need to do. You might think that no average person would do this. And that is the point. You do not want to do what the average person does â€“ because the average person does not achieve his or her goals. You want to be above average so you need to make above average changes.

Look at your goal, and look at your lifestyle. Are there any things that might tempt you to not achieve your goal? Find a way to remove them. You might think well I have a family and they like ice cream, surely I canâ€™t deprive them. Surely you can. They love you, and they want you to be healthier. And you might also want them to be healthier too. Sit them down and explain that eating habits will be much improved at home. Only healthy snacks will be available from now. Enlist their support. Find a way to remove the negative temptations from your life.

Positive Changes

Positive changes involve adding to your environment things that will promote achievement of your goal. There are several suggestions here. One of the most important ones is posting your goal where it is readily and frequently visible. It is critical to keep your goal in mind at all times. This allows you to make choices that will help you to achieve it. Print out your goals on a sheet of paper and stick it up all over the house. Use bright colours, funny shapes, pictures. And change these around from time to time so that they continue to register on your consciousness. Post pictures of the kind of body you want up on the walls, on your screensaver. I actually have a file on my computer that I leave open that asks in large bold colourful letters â€œIs what you are doing right now helping you to achieve your goals?â€ Actually it has several similar questions and I switch them around for the sake of freshness. It anchors me and brings my focus back to my goals.

Monitor your progress

Get into the habit of writing out your goals first thing in the morning, so that you can keep them at the forefront of your mind all day. This will take you less than five minutes but the benefit will last much much longer. Last thing at night, evaluate your success that day and praise yourself for the choices you made that supported your goal. If you passed up that birthday cake at the office give yourself a pat on the back. If you gave in, think about strategies that you can use next time to be more successful.

There are many positive changes that you can make that can help encourage achievement of your goals. Buy lots of fruits and granola. But gym clothes that make you feel comfortable and pretty. Read inspiring stories about others who have achieved what you are trying to achieve and take note of their techniques. If you want to ride everyday, put your bike right in the doorway so you must pass it on your way in or out. Even silly-sounding tricks can help – like placing the ice cream way back in the freezer so that you have to take out everything else before you can get to it.

I mentioned it in the previous article but it bears repeating here -Â employ the old 10 minute technique. If you really do not feel like exercising, then tell yourself that you will just do it for ten minutes. A lot of the time the problem is inertia and once you get started you will get into it, start enjoying it and keep going. And before you know it, you have exercised for half hour and you feel great about yourself.

And that is the most positive change â€“ encourage yourself to think about how you will feel once you have done what you need to do to achieve your goal. You will feel proud and accomplished. You will feel in control of your life and your dreams. Focus on that feeling. Allow it to inspire you to do what you need to do now so that you can have those feelings. More will be said about this later on Changing your Thinking. Think up and implement as many positive changes as you can.

Keep the right company

An important part of changing your environment is changing the company you keep. You may need to spend less time with some people and more time with others. What you need right now is people who support your goal and people who have similar goals.

Remove non-supportive people

Many smokers who decide to become non-smokers find that they must refrain from hanging out with their old smoking buddies and hang out with non-smokers. There are several reasons for this. This most obvious one is that you need people around you who support your goal. The more important they think your goal is the more support you will get and the more likely you will be to succeed. People who do not think that your goal is worthwhile are likely to encourage you to give up by their own actions. If you are trying to quit smoking being around people who think smoking is ok and who engage in this activity show you that they do not support this goal and put you in an environment where many negatives exist. The mere availability of the cigarettes puts you at risk for not achieving your goal.

This may seem harsh. But it is necessary. Especially when you have just started on your journey towards achieving your goal. Once your good positive habits have been established these people may be less of a liability to you. But still you must always be vigilant.

Foster supportive people

Similarly, you must foster the company of people who will actively support your goal, and very importantly, people who have already achieved what you have decided to achieve. These people will support your efforts and be strong for you when you are feeling weak.

They will support you in achieving your goal by reminding you of it at critical times. If your goal is to lose 15 pounds by December 1st, and you are at a party with your friends where cake and ice cream are available they will remind you that you are trying to lose weight right at the moment when you are tempted by the ice cream. If they are really good friends, they might actually steer you towards the fruit tray. Heck, my hubby would take the ice cream away from me and eat it himself, to â€œsave me from myselfâ€ or so he says

Additionally, in expressing their belief in your ability to succeed, they will be instrumental in shoring up your belief in yourself. This is an essential element of success and will be discussed later on.

Benefit from the experience of others

A second benefit of having these positive people around you is the extra brain power. They can and will make suggestions as to additional strategies you can implement to help you achieve your goal. Those who have already achieved the same goal will share tips on strategies that worked for them. You will have the benefit of their experience.

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Next article in the Achieving Your Goals Series: Change YourÂ Thinking