Since April is the month where most of us see real changes in our environment with a resurgence of budding trees and flowers, lawns, and songbirds, Maddie and I thought we’d leverage this season of environmental change by encouraging you to make a few changes in your own environment. What do we have in mind?


Well, imagine you walk into your living room one morning, coffee cup in hand, intent on watching your morning news show. Only one problem: someone has removed all the couches and chairs and there’s no place to sit. Overnight, your living room environment has been radically altered. You can’t sit and watch TV. Your daily morning habit has been broken because your environment has changed.


Of course, this is an extreme example. But it illustrates how our environment influences and sometimes even dictates our habits and behaviors. We might want to watch less Netflix, but with the couches and chairs all facing the TV, it’s way too easy to just keep streaming.


Our homes, offices, and other spaces, together with the objects and people in these spaces, have enormous sway over our habits and behavior. As such, it’s not surprising that changing our environment is one of the most recommended strategies for changing our habits. Want to eat more fruits and veggies? Put a bowl out on the countertop for easy access. Want to get more steps in? Put a mini elliptical under your desk and cycle while you respond to emails. (I do this and it works great). Maddie keeps the food cues out of her kitchen by putting groceries in the refrigerator or cupboards. And she’s made walking outdoors even easier by keeping everything she needs for all weather walking close at hand. @biketheworld made a simple, yet powerful environmental shift in March by setting a timer to limit sitting and iPad scrolling.


Changing our habits by changing our environment has a terrific upside: these are one time changes. Set it and forget it. We don’t have to change ourselves and learn new behaviors. We’ve changed what impacts our behaviors.


Maddie and I have been so excited to see your positive responses to identify based-habits. If you want to reinforce or create a new identity in April, by all means go for it. We are here to support you. But we also hope you’ll spend some time this month critically looking at your environment for things you can change to make habit building easier. How can you make it easier to create the habits you want and how can you make the habits you want to shed more difficult to do? There are lots of possibilities.


But maybe keep the living room furniture? 😀



🌷Denise & 🌸Maddie
@themedalist & @MadisonMolly2017


New to Our Group and Habit Building?
Please read our Newcomer's Guide and our Nuts and Bolts of Habit Building. They will help make your habit stick!



Learn More:

Motivation is Overvalued. Environment Often Matters More:

https://jamesclear.com/power-of-environment


How to Stick With Good Habits Even When Your Willpower is Gone

https://jamesclear.com/choice-architecture