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Willpower Doesn't Work (Your Environment Shapes You (how environment…
Willpower Doesn't Work
Your Environment Shapes You
hero only product of his surroundings
coming-of-age moment
where you have to evolve because of the situation you are in
example Simba in The Lion King
history was shapted by demanding situations
free will?
not infinitely
constrained by context/external variables
e.g. natural laws like gravity
you are constrained, but not caused by them
change direction of your life
through willpower (limited)
by reshaping your surroindings/environment
negative secondary connections
you are shaped by the five people nearest to you, and the five people nearest to each of them
you won't see changes coming
self signaling
personality is shaped by behavior, not the other way around
don't judge yourself based on your actions
fake it till you make it
precognition
do actions that trigger the emotional state you want to be in
e.g. clap to feel motiavted
different environments can trigger different emotional states
how environment shapes you
goalsetting and focus and change of attitude
works only on a limited number of behaviors
things you rarely do
e.g. not for overcoming addictions
often performed tasks are automatized in a specific context
behavior outsourced to context (environment)
your limits (what you think is possible) are often set by your social context/environment
every environment has its rules and norms
your life is not a reflection of your values and beliefs, but a product of the social norms that surround you
create an environment that conforms with your values and beliefs
environment can change your genes
a persons value is relative to their context
does your environment support/enforce you to grow?
if you believe your intelligence is fluid and changeable you are
more open to challenging and new experiences
more likely to grow and change
you are always acting in a role
based on the rules of the current situation
your role is relative to what surrounds you
student, firefighter, friend, ...
you don't prequalify for a role, but you become qualified through the role itself
you can never folly prepare for anything in life
create the environment that will enforce you to take a particular role
enriched environments
regular change between high stress and high recovery
own environment for each
shape environments in a way that the desired behavior is automated and outsourced to the environment
growth happens during resting periods
this also leads to new insights, ideas and solutions
most environments are otpimized for distraction, not high performance or recovery
Make Willpower Irrelevant (high rest environments)
Reset your life (yournaling for peak experiences)
peak experiences
operate at a level
that yout can achieve ambitions
beyond anything you have done before
create them intentionally
start right
create environments where you can fully "unplug"
regular yournaling for peak experiences
Rest is where you grow and recover
journaling for creating peak experiences
regularly
get completely outside your busy life
take at least 30 minutes
to get out of your regular environment
to prepare mentally
e.g. meditate, be grateful
take time to reset and reconnect to you
be honest and vulnerable
topics
what am I grateful for?
How far I've come
What has happened since the last time?
write down (long- term and middle-term) goals
key changes you need to make to achieve your dreams and ideals
people who matter to me
act upon insightsl immediately (e.g. call people that come to your mind)
Designate a sacret space (morning journal ritual)
morning routine for putting yourself into a peak state
"start right"
operate from that state for the rest of the day
immediately after waking up
to avoid slipping into a bad state of operating
journaling as part of morning routine
write down your goals
what do you need to do to achieve them
including people to reach out to
get into a space that is personal to you and triggers a mental state to think clearly
especially for
visualizing and planning your future
making important decisions
Remove Everything that conflicts with your decisions (Essentialism)
you life your current life because there are benefits
changing/improving/getting rid of things is always difficult
acknowledte benefits
let go to improve
eliminate stuff
set limits
on nearly every aspect of your life
upper limits
e.g. all electronics have to fit into one box
lower limits
e.g. one trip/month; 30 miles/week; cooking once/week
eliminate distractions
delete apps, etc
that doesn't help you grow
keep distractions (like your phone)
away from you
when resting (actually whenever possible)
eliminate options
the more options you have, the fewer decisions you will make
more options make decisions more difficult
know what you want/in which direction you want to go
take 20 steps into one direction
instead of one step into 20 directions
eliminate people
surround wirth people
who remind you more of your future
than your past
establish boundaries for people with negative influence
don't try to change them
but be a good example for them
eliminate working memory
establish straight-forwardcommunication
communicate to free your memory
eliminate procrastination
create a system
write things down
Outsource High Performance and Success (high stress environments)
Embedding "Forcing Functions" for making change happen
rate richness of environments
by how regularly you are in a flow state
in that environment
opposite of office job
where you are usually not forced to produce
and therefore distract yourself
e.g. no reporting of daily progress
forcing functions =
self-imposed situational factors
that force you to act and achieve what you intended
make one decision
that makes all other irrelevant or easier
example: delete social media apps from your smartphone
create an environment
that outsources desired behaviors
frees up your working memory
implementing forcing functions
high investment
"positive" sunk cost fallacy
invest a great deal up front
to ensure your committment
example: personal trainer
how can you invest more of youself and your resources
into your goals as a forcing function?
social pressure
even good: competition with (public) rewards and punishment
What ways can you create social pressure
to your current goals and projects?
high consequence for poor performance
when your are operating at a mediocre level
there is more room for mistakes and shortcuts
in order to perform at your highest performance,
your performance must mean something
bring other people into your goals
in your current situation:
what are the consequenc3es
for not performing at your highest level?
what ways can you make the consequences of your actions
more salient and motivating?
high difficulty
novelty
disorienting dilemma
the more novelty embedded into your life and environment,
the more engaged you will be
is your routine the same every day?
how can you change things up?
More than good intentions (adapt to new environments)
master your environment by
getting outside
your habits
your comfort zone
become an adaptive learner
if you believe you can learn anything
you actually can
(have a) growth mindset
have faith that you can
adapt and change
first believe that you can achieve it,
than learn how to do/become it
learning styles/process (each of styles/steps have do be combined)
imagining
come up with ideas
reflecting
learn about ideas you came up with
analyzing
synthetising what you've learned and making strategic plans about what to do with that ideas
deciding
making a decision on ONE WAY to go with a specific idea
experiencing
learning from different angles
with people, creating someting, failing, attempting, ...
commit 100 %
point of no return
moment when it becomes easier
to move toward your goals
thant to avoid them
initiated by a significant (financial) investment
escalation of commitment
irrational decision to justify previous decision/commitment
pursuing your highest ambition
becomes your only option
become comfortable in newl and uncertain situations
you arwe more adaptive thann you think
it's usually easier than you think in advance
jump in
to adapt quickly and efficiently
reset environment
instead of trying to manage a broken system
What have you been avoiding
taking action on?
-> jump in fully!
embrace difficult/unpleasant emotions
everyting you want
is on the other side of fear
avoidance of negative emotions stops you
from living a great life
from fulfilling your highest ambitions
disregard what you feel in the moment
for happiness in the long term