Location, location, location: Why Your Environment is Fundamental for Self-Leadership

When considering where to live or set up shop for your business, location is hugely important.

So important that when you ask what makes a property valuable, the answer is three simple words: “Location, location, location.” That’s how important

But before we go on, we want to make one thing clear: Location is not just a point on a map. It’s all the issues related to the place . . . and the space.

Common questions that would probably cross your mind when thinking about a place to work or live include things like:

Is this a place I want to be?
Can I do what I want in this space?
Can I do what I want with the space?
How will it work for the people I work or live with?
How easy is it to get to?
Is there free parking?
What else is going on in the neighborhood?
Is the place big enough? Will it fit all my stuff?
How do I use it so it fits my needs and interests?
What can I get to or do in the neighborhood?
Who are the neighbors? What do they do? How do they treat newcomers?
What does it cost?

While looking around, you may be considering many other things too, like how much light comes through the windows, how noisy it is during the day and at night, the color and condition of the walls, the amount of storage space, the traffic pattern from one room to the next, and ultimately, the overall vibe. In other words, does it evoke the warm emotions you associate with “home?”

To repeat: Location isn’t just a point on the map: Location expands to your whole environment.

In fact, it expands to the whole of your experience in that environment.

How Much Attention Do You Pay to Your Environment?

Here’s the challenge: Once we commit to a specific space in a specific location--how carefully and deliberately do we evaluate it, assess it, manage it, and monitor it over time to create and maintain the best experience for ourselves?

The answer is probably not much or not enough.

The truth is, very few people get educated about the importance of their physical surroundings.

And even if we do, who is trained to do much with that knowledge, much less optimize their surroundings so they maximize their performance in whatever activities they’re engaged in, even if it's just relaxing?

As we mentioned, when it comes to real estate, it’s “location, location, location.” When it comes to managing your life, your environment is almost as critical.

We say “almost” because environment isn’t exactly the same as location is for realtors. It doesn’t occupy all the top priorities on the list of factors that lead to success on the job or at home.

But it is a fundamental building block for self-leadership, the practice of identifying and accomplishing the things we care about on and off the job.

That’s why it’s one of the four elements in our revolutionary Y-PET framework for change. Y-PET stands for You, People, Environment, and Things. It’s a framework for change that gives you a systematic and deliberate way to manage the many factors that can either put you into the winner’s circle of self-leadership or leave you at the back of the pack.

Where Environment Fits Into the Whole of Your Life

Within our Y-PET framework, environment means the space you live, learn, work, play, and pray in. It includes critical but often overlooked factors like light, sound, color, smell, texture, space. And in today’s world, environment also includes your digital space.

Environment Can Harm . . . or Heal

One of the leading experts on the effects of environment on health and healing is Esther Steinberg, MD. A physician, author, and leader in the movement to design spaces that promote optimal health and healing, Dr. Steinberg teaches that environment influences what you see, hear, smell, touch, and do.

Dr. Steinberg’s research shows that not only do all animals, including humans, associate a given place with a specific emotion, we can intentionally design space to evoke specific positive emotions . . .

. . . and positive emotions drive positive action.

By learning how to design and manage it, you can create an environment that can help you:

Improve your mood. We know that rooms with bright light, whether natural or artificial, can improve mood and life depression and anxiety.
Increase your behavior and motivation to act. When you enter a space where you are greeted by a messy pile of assorted shoes, bags, and other stuff, you’re more likely to dump what you’re carrying in a heap; whereas a clean entry and easy-to-reach storage will encourage you to take the time to stow your stuff in an orderly way.
Facilitate healthy interactions with other people. An inviting space with comfortable chairs encourages people to sit, hang out, and chat.
Lower stress levels. A pleasant space that embodies a felt sense of safety, peace, and calm can reduce stress, boost health, and even increase longevity.
Accelerate healing. In hospitals, heart rate, blood pressure, and oxygen levels were improved in both adults and babies when noise from paging systems, equipment, alarms, roommates, and staff were reduced.
Reduce anger and fear, and boost pleasant feelings. Just three to five minutes of contact with nature, even by looking outside at plants, sky, and trees; having indoor plants or aquariums; or even just looking at art with a nature theme can transform difficult emotions into more manageable feelings.

Space-Time Behavior Means Trade-offs You Control

Another intriguing concept about environment comes from work conducted in a variety of disciplines that includes civil engineering, public health, land use and transportation planning, and public policy. It’s called space-time behavior. Space-time behavior describes how people choose to act within a given environment at a given time for a given duration of time to achieve a given purpose, and manage the trade-offs among these elements.

Here’s an example of the kind of trade-offs that happen in space-time behavior: Imagine that you have 30 minutes of free time sometime in your day. You want to return a tool to your neighbor that you borrowed quite a while ago, pick up a book at the library a few blocks away, and harvest a few tomatoes from the community garden around the corner from the library.

Do you jump in your car to zip around the 5-block radius and get home in plenty of time to read a few social media posts? Or, do you hop on your bike or walk, get fresh air and exercise, and return home just in time to get to the next item on your schedule?

It’s not such an obvious decision when you consider the many factors related to space and time that could come into play.

Here’s what we mean: Take that scenario--needing to return a tool to your neighbor, pick up a book at the library, and harvest tomatoes, all close enough to home to ride your bike, or even walk. Now, put that scenario into a few different environmental contexts.

In context one, it's the first thing in the morning. The temperature is perfect and there’s a lovely breeze. The streets are quiet and there are no busy highways to cross. You have a convenient spot at home to park your bike in that makes it easy to hop on and off quickly. It’s safe to drop your bike right outside the library when you run in to get your book; and, it’s an easy ride to the garden to harvest your tomatoes.

In the second context, it’s late afternoon. The temperature has risen so it’s stiflingly hot and humid with no breeze whatsoever. The streets are busy with cars and buses bringing people home from work, and kids are out on the sidewalks playing ball or skating. The library is a central hang-out for young teens after school so sometimes you have to push your way through the noisy, rowdy group to get through the door. Plus, there are no bike racks at the library and any bike that’s left outside is a temptation for a kid to take off with it, even if it’s just to spin around right in front of the library while you’re ducking inside. . . but getting your bike back could hold you up for a few precious moments.

Which do you think you’re more likely to do in each of these scenarios: Drive the car or take your bike?

It’s probably pretty clear what your choice would be based on the environmental--space and time--factors.

Environment Can Keep You Stuck . . . or Give You a Fresh Start

Another powerful insight about the effect of environment on your life and your ability to make positive changes comes from Katy Milkman at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. In summarizing a paper that was published in 1992 and whose results have been replicated numerous times since, Milkman points out that simply changing your environment can give you a huge psychological fresh start.

What’s a fresh start and why is it important?

A fresh start boosts your motivation to change because it gives you a clean slate . . . or the impression of one. You don’t feel burdened by your history or trapped in the past. It’s like when you get a “take over” or “do over” in a game: All past mistakes are forgiven.

A fresh start disrupts old routines, expands your perspectives, and gives you a new way to think. It’s a completely new opportunity to do what it takes to reach your goals.

Examples of fresh starts include: calendar dates that mark a new beginning (for example, January 1, the first day of the month, your birthday, or anniversaries), a big life event, or a move to a new environment.

That new environment could be anything in your surroundings that gives you the sense of turning over a new leaf in your life. It could be moving to a new town, changing the route you take to work, moving furniture in the space where you live so you have more room to move, or any other element--small or large.

We like this super simple, but powerful way that some people have changed their work environment. We call it the “one-arm sweep.” It’s for people who find that their desks have gotten out of control, piled with papers, pens, cards, receipts, old cords, dead batteries, and all the other stuff that they’ve accumulated and haven’t looked at in a long time. You clear your desk instantly with a single sweep of the arm that drops everything into a box. You can put the box under your desk or anywhere else and access it anytime you want.

The magic of the one-arm sweep is that it gives you the very convincing impression of a fresh start because you end up with a very clear, clean desk.

Now reflect on your own personal environment and the many different elements that affect the decisions you make about what actions to take at a given time for a given purpose . . . and how you might change it up for a fresh start.

CLICK HERE for an ACTION GUIDE to help you consider the power of your environment to shape your thoughts, feelings, and actions to improve your self-leadership.

If you're just joining and missed the series of posts featuring the Be Your Own Best Coach revolutionary Y-PET framework on the Art & Science of Lasting Change, catch up on previous posts below.

Y-PET stands for You, People, Environment, and Things. It’s a framework for change that gives you a systematic and deliberate way to manage the many factors that can either put you into the winner’s circle of positive change or leave you at the back of the pack.