I’m writing this blog in a wooden box in my basement.
Which is where I do most of my work that’s done away from RISE itself.
Pre-lockdown I did a lot of this work either on the PC at RISE or on my laptop in various places around my house.
During first lockdown, with a wife who was working full-time from home and four kids who needed home schooling, I realised that I needed a definite space just for me.
So I put an old desk in the basement.
A few weeks later I added wooden panels to the front and sides so that I wasn’t constantly looking at the wall in front of me and everything piled up to the sides.
A few months later I extended the sides and added a back, roof and door.
Creating the box that I’m currently sat in.
Occasionally friends come round, see this box and laugh.
Which I get.
But it’s perfect for me.
I get so much more work done than I used to doing this work elsewhere.
It’s a nice temperature, there are no distractions and I want to get my work done ASAP so I can do something else.
Our environment affects our behaviour more than we like to tell ourselves.
Whilst we always have the final choice in what we do……..
Setting our environment up to make those choices easier (or harder) makes a lot of sense.
If having booze, chocolate, cake and sweet things “in” (and maybe even out on display) makes it more likely that will eat or drink them, might it make more sense not to have them in?
Why create a situation that requires us to then use willpower?
It doesn’t mean we can’t ever have these things.
But if them constantly being “there” means we have an amount that we will struggle to average out, then maybe we could just not have them “there”.
If the people we spend most time with eat rubbish, don’t exercise and then explain their justifications for that to us……….
Then might we benefit from spending more time with people who eat well and do exercise?
If the place we’re trying to go to exercise makes us feel uncomfortable, unwelcome, a bit confused and pretty bored……….
Then finding somewhere we enjoy going might make sense (cough **** www.myrise.co.uk/apply ***** cough)?
If the media we consume (conventional and social) makes us feel bad about the world and / or our lives……..
Then might changing that environment up help to?
Much like my wooden box in my basement, our environment matters
If you’re struggling with something, give some thoughts to what the environment ‘around’ that looks like.
Much love,
Jon ‘Out today with my A-Level Physics table who refer to it as my ‘Fritzl room” Hall
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RISE in Macclesfield was established in 2012 and specialise in Group Personal Training weight loss programmes for those that don’t like the gym and find diets boring and restrictive!
