ARE YOU IN YOUR BEST ENVIRONMENT?

Always be mindful that if you're a product of your environment you must choose an environment that will best develop you toward your objective.

Are the things around you helping you toward your success, or are they holding you back and if so have you set yourself up for some self sabotage?

The first step toward getting somewhere is to decide that you're not going to stay where you are. You're not a captive of any environment and you can dictate the way you need to go.

If you don't like where you are today, make some changes everyday in every way and even tiny steps will take you in the right direction. You're not planted permanently in the ground like a tree. Don't say, "You would, if you could," start saying, "You will, because you can and you can if you want to."

When you become a part of anything it becomes a part of you.

Most people have one of three common relationships with their environment:

1. They try to protect themselves from it
2. They tolerate it
3. They try to 'work around it' so that it does not get in their way or slow them down."

Everyone knows the phrase, "You are a product of your environment," but most people never realise that they have the potential to proactively design and create environments that bring out their best. If you have any of the above three relationships with your environment, then chances are you are using a lot of personal energy and willpower to get things done. When you design empowering environments, the environments themselves support you and naturally pull you forward.

Here is a simple analogy to help you shift your thinking in this area. Many of us know people that have physical disabilities. We sometimes refer to such people as having "special needs". For example, we understand that people in wheelchairs need homes and offices with wide doorways, ramps, slip-resistant floors, grab bars, etc. We recognize that these modifications to their environment allow special needs individuals to function more effectively and efficiently. The secret is to realize that we all have special needs. Ask yourself:

• What is unique about me?
• How do I work best?
• How can I design and create an environment that will be ideal for me, and will support and inspire me?

Properly constructed environments can do all of the following and more:

• Nurture you - make you feel safe and protected
• Support you - provide you what you need to be your best
• Protect you - from the physical elements and other people
• Inspire you and naturally pull you forward; release your creativity
• Manage you - focus your time and attention

There are hundreds of other examples of how people have designed their environments to improve the quality of their lives. The key is to discover what works for you. Then instead of spending all of your energy trying to work on yourself - for example trying to make yourself more creative, productive, or organized - work on creating an empowering environment and let the environment bring out your best.

For me I enjoy sitting under a coconut tree in my PJ's and making sure that I keep away from that standard 9am-5pm

Think hard about the lifestyle you want and not the money.

As the saying goes Be careful what you wish for

Once in a far off land many years ago, there lived a poor stone-cutter who was unhappy with his lot in life. He longed to be happy and wished as hard as he could to be more powerful. Now this land was one full of magic and strange powers and it so happened that the stone-cutter wished so hard, he got his wish. With a gust of wind the stone-cutter was transformed into a rich man, riding on his own camel in fine clothes and beautiful jewellery.

As he rode, the stone-cutter thought to himself, ‘I wish I was more powerful … I wish I was a king. No one is more powerful than that.’ And once again his wish was granted.

Now he rode on a fine white stallion, with a crown of gold upon his head. As he rode on, the stone-cutter – now a powerful king – was caught by a great gust of wind which tore off his crown and sent it flying high in the air.

The stone-cutter thought for a moment before deciding that he wanted to be the wind, which was certainly more powerful than any king and could move anything it wanted. Lo and behold, the stone-cutter was transformed into a raging current of air which blew through the land, shifting everything in his path.

That was until the great wind came up against the side of an enormous mountain which simply would not budge. And, as you’ve probably guessed, the discontented stone-cutter wished he could be a great mountain standing proud and impenetrable, and through the magic once again he transformed into the object of his desire.

As the stone-cutter looked out across the land enjoying the feeling of strength and power, he noticed another lowly stone-cutter chopping large slabs from the bottom of his mound. The mountain saw this and longed with all his heart to be a stone-cutter again, as clearly such a man had the power to tame even the greatest peak.

So finally, as the mysterious powers once again transformed the stone-cutter, he at last realized that the grass is not always greener and perhaps he should have been content with his lot in life in the first place.

Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it, and then the chances are you’ll quickly tire of it and long for what you had! Appreciate what you have and make the most of your talents.