You Are What You Are Surrounded With

One of the better features of using Mozilla Firefox is that it is integrated with Pocket and suggests really interesting articles to read on the home screen. These 'Pocket Suggestions' are visible whenever you open a new empty tab in Mozilla.

But the problem is that these really interesting articles can often prove to be a distraction. At least, it happened to me. Whenever i used to open my laptop to do some work, Mozilla used to suggest these excellent articles. and almost always i used to click on one of those ( because of the reason that they usually proved to be excellent, indeed) and often used to forget or lose track of the more important work at hand.

It was a frustrating experience, until one day i decided to hide the recommendations. In last few months since the day i decided to hide the recommendations, i haven't read a single article recommended by Pocket. And i don't feel the need to do so as well.

The point I'm trying to make through this is that how easily our environment shape our actions. We are more inclined to act on what's in front of us. We are more inclined to consume content through our social media or YouTube feed, rather than taking the pain of searching for specific content. We are the product of our environment. That's why it's really important to create our environment in such a way that it facilitates good habits.

For example, i always keep 2-3 books beside my bed, so that just before sleeping, I'll always have something to read. I always keep a water bottle on my desk. This way i drink water more often than if had to go all the way to fridge.

The point is, instead of being the product of our environment, we should be the creators of our environment. We should make conscious efforts to build our environment according to what we want to achieve. I won't dwell much on the physical setting of the environment, as Writer James Clear has already written a good deal about it in his excellent book Atomic Habits.

Instead, I'll talk about our societal and intellectual environment. How people around us shape our thoughts and ideas. In his book Connected: The Amazing Power of Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives, and his TED talk, Nicholas Christakis shows how our social networks impact us. He shows that you're more likely to be obese, if your friends are obese. Similarly, you're more likely to be fit, if your friends are fit. You are more likely to smoke, if more of your friends are smokers. Our social connections impacts us in way more ways than we imagine. Our social connections count not only in the obvious ways, but also in subtle ways that we barely understand.

Same goes for our intellectual environments. We are what we consume. We should be conscious of the content we are consuming. We are living in a world oversupplied with content. We are surrounded with apps and streaming services craving for our attention. Every second is a struggle to preserve our attention span.

We have a limited supply of willpower. So, if every second we have to rely on our self control or willpower to deny the temptations of social media apps or streaming services, sooner or later we are going to give up. In this scenario, we should create our environment judiciously, so that we can preserve our willpower, which in itself is in quite limited supply, for some more important purpose.

So, what are you thinking? Take a pen and a scribbling pad and get on the work to design your environment. And remember, don't be a Product of your environment, be a Creator of it.