A productive environment will lead to a positive loop that consistently produce positive emotions and thought patterns – Zain Kahn
How to fix everything in your life:
The quality of your life depends on the quality of your decisions.
The quality of your decisions depends on the quality of your thoughts.
The quality of your thoughts depends on the quality of your emotions.
And your emotions are the product of your genes and your environment.
Contrary to popular wisdom, focusing on the quality of your decisions is overrated (sorry mental models gang).
Trying to fix decisions is an uphill battle when you’re constantly being held back by negative thoughts and emotions.
Decisions are the end point in a long chain of prior events.
And everything in that chain is downstream from the interaction between your genes and your environment.
Bad news: your genes are fixed and there isn’t a whole lot you can do about it.
Good news: you can change almost anything in your environment.
If you can fix your environment, it becomes a lot easier to fix everything else in your life.
But how do you fix your environment?
And what does a good environment look like?
A productive environment will lead to a positive loop that consistently produce positive emotions and thought patterns.
And a positive state of mind will in turn produces better decisions and a better life.
An unproductive environment, in contrast, will lead to a negative loop that consistently produces stressful emotions and negative thought patterns.
And a negative state of mind will in turn produce bad decisions, leading to a stressful life.
You can improve your environment by removing its negative elements:
• Toxic relationships
• Unsupportive friends
• Processed foods
• Excessive social media
• Clickbait news
• Weed and alcohol
• Peer pressure
• Backstabbing colleagues
and so on.
You can also improve your environment by adding positive elements:
• Supportive friends
• Loving spouses / partners
• Exercise
• Fruits and vegetables
• Fresh air
• Sunlight
• Time with loved ones
• Supportive mentors
• Trustworthy colleagues
• Books
and so on.
Example of a productive environment:
Supportive colleagues, fair pay, mentoring boss, ample opportunities…
…will lead to positive emotions and thought patterns…
…which will enhance the average quality of your decisions…
…which will eventually benefit your career.
Example of an unproductive environment:
Selfish colleagues, crap pay, critical boss, no opportunities…
…will lead to negative emotions and thought patterns…
…which will hurt the average quality of your decisions…
…which will eventually damage your career.
Summary:
• Decisions are the output, not the input.
• Your environment shapes your thoughts and emotions.
• Which in turn affect the quality of your decisions.
• If you want to fix your life, focus on fixing your environment first.
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I write about marketing, psychology and career growth. I share my insights along the way.
