Are Your Goals Supported by Your Environments?

Greetings! Friends, I listened to an amazing interview last night – Jim Bunch was interviewed by Raymond Aaron.

I am not selling you anything. I believe in Raymond so here is his link. Raymond is a heavyweight, not a snake oil success guru. The real thing:

http://www.aaron.com/

You may have never heard of these fellows. Raymond Aaron has developed a program called “The Monthly Mentor” and others as well. My accountability
partner has shown me some of Raymonds materials, and they are pretty much the most awesome goal setting tools I (and my partner) have seen to date.

Ok, yes I am a musician, but I have goals – and whether you are a musician or not, we are in fact very similar! And all of us have this in common – we want to evolve, achieve, reach new heights, in whatever our main areas of life may be.

Jim talked about “the hot bath” phenomena with motivation. All to often I have seen this in my students as well. The “hot bath” can be likened to inspiration. He recounted how many of his students made commitments at motivational seminars and then a year later found themselves in the same place, not having followed through on goals.

Ouch! I think this is something we can all relate to – and bravo if you can’t or don’t.

So if you are like me (and you are) you want to eat right, exercise, meditate, (practice an instrument or whatever you are developing) keep your place clean, make more money….you see where this is going? The list gets long, and items fall through the cracks. Or we get overwhelmed (I do if I get overloaded).

Many of the teachers and coaches teach subconcious re-programming through affirmations and visualitzations. That’s another topic completely and a very important one. Essentially you re-program your mind. I can write more on that later, but there is already plenty out there. I suggest reading John Assarafof this topic.

Jim went on to break down, in his estimation, the factors responsible in bringing about change or progress:

10% Willpower (The “hot bath” problem; motivation wears off an then we fall into old habits.)

40% Subconcious (Very significant chunk here!)

50% Environment (Oh my God!!)

Environments support the direction of behaviors, beliefs and actions – good and bad. Wow!!!

In my travels through life I have taken notes like:

– A clean desk helps me work with a clear mind.

– Talking to people who are negative does me no good.

– Allowing myself to sit with an instrument in my hands guarantees improvement.

– If I have junk food in the house, I eat junk food.

– If I go to a bar I usually end up drinking more than I want to.

– Students who take lessons every week make more progress. The environment holds them accountable.

And so on. Can you see that these are all environments?

The desk, the social circles, the comitted time and focus on core genius, the refridgerator, the bar. Each environment supports behaviors and the environments “pull” can knock out will power.

Good grief!!! What a wake up call…

My commitment this week is to answer these questions, and maybe you’d want to try it too:

What 3 environments do I need to eliminate?

What 3 environments can I put in place to raise my standard of life?

This is hard core stuff. It can’t be “bought” as it comes from inside.

I will follow this up with a list for you, and in publishing it I will have you hold me accountable!

What environments in your life help you? What hinder you? Do you need to put something new in place? Eliminate something?

May you go in peace and kick ass in life! Until tomorrow….