Finding the right environment is as underestimated and crucial to the success of your self-development as having the right mindset is. In this article, we will show you why you keep going in circles in your self-development journey and how your environment can be the key to solving this once and for all. So, if you want to find out how looking outward can finally get you the inner peace you wanted, then keep reading.
What Is Meant With Environment?
First, let’s clarify what we mean by your environment. An environment includes everything in your surroundings that makes up how you experience that space. This can be physical like your workplace, how much sunlight you’re getting, the smells, and noise in your daily environment, and more. As well as your social environment, are you more introverted or extroverted? Do you prefer to work with large groups or one on one? Your setting or surroundings should make you feel good.
The Data
The reason many may overlook this part could be because, until recently there wasn’t much proof to back this up. Only in the last three decades, research in the field of Person-Environment fit has increased from 33 publications in 1990 to 1,083 publications in 2017. This increase in research shows that Person-Environment fit theory became an important part of organizational psychology (Vianen, 2018).
What they found in Person-Environment Fit Theory is that your environment can either increase or decrease your stress levels and that stress levels as well as attitude, well-being, and behavior are determined by how well the person and environment fit together, not just the person or the environment separately. (Edwards et al., 1998)
55-80%
Another reason this might be overlooked could be because, not only is the environment exclusively being taken seriously in organizational psychology to increase business profit, we also had a misconception about our genetics. In the past, self-report studies claimed that 40-55% of variance in adult personality traits is due to genetics. However, a few studies that included other informants, as well as self-reports, showed that genetics actually accounts for 55-80% of variance in adult personalities (Kandler, 2012).
Additionally, a paper by Olver and Mooradian in 2003 stated that “Personality traits are in fact strongly heritable, surprisingly immune to parental and social influences and remarkably stable throughout adulthood.”(Olver & Mooradian, 2003)
Which, is quite literally the complete opposite we have told people when we tell them to accept and adjust themselves to their surroundings since we are adaptable beings.
What Large Companies Already Knew
In fact, the environment is so important for our well-being and a determinant of how much stress we endure that large companies like Google spend an easy 1 billion dollars on the interior design of their London office because it is proven to increase productivity (Hughes, 2022). For the same reason, Apple planted 10,000 trees at its headquarters (Spaces, 2019) because studies have proven plants to improve productivity by as much as 15% (Nieuwenhuis et al., 2014).
Serious Business
Being in the right environment is not just important for psychological benefits, productivity, and revenue but has physical benefits as well.
To give an example, a man named Roger Ulrich had undergone gallbladder removal surgery. When recovering he saw a pine tree out of his window. This pine tree made him feel happy and he quickly recovered. He theorized that the fact that he had a nice view meant he recovered faster. So he conducted a study. He put 23 patients recovering from a cholecystectomy in a room with a nice view and 23 patients recovering from the same surgery in a room with a view that looked at a brick wall. He found that those with a nicer view were not only happier but did in fact recover faster too (Ulrich, 1984). This shows just how much your surroundings affect your state of being both physically and mentally.
Not living in alignment can cause health issues such as dysphoria, insomnia, and restlessness. In your body, this may look like elevated blood pressure, elevated cholesterol, and a compromised immune system. Behavioral signs include overeating, smoking, and frequent use of the health care system. Over time this can lead to even more serious problems such as chronic depression, and fatal illnesses. (Edwards et al., 1998)
The Relevance Of It All?
So evidently, the environment is based on you. When we are born, we are born with specific innate characteristics not taught to us, like pre-programmed settings you are unable to delete or modify. Put that pre-programmed person in the wrong environment and you’ll see that environment is kind of like a vitamin, but instead of the body being deficient it’s the soul that is deficient. At some point, deficiencies catch up to us and we struggle to live our life the way we want to. Simply put the less of a match our environment is to our set personality types or pre-programmed settings, the more stress we endure and the harder it is to live life the way we want to.
Although a seemingly straightforward idea, this concept does not get addressed as much as it should in psychology let alone personal development coaching. Consequently, most of us still miss this crucial reason for stress. This might be why it feels like, even after reading so much self-help material, you still feel unsuccessful in your search for peace. If so, you are not alone. So what can we do about it?
Part two: The How
That leaves us with two more questions in this second part of the article, How can you tell if you’re in the right setting? And if you are not, how can you discover what environment is best for you?
Let’s start with the first question, How can you tell if you’re in the right setting?
Tell Tail Signs
Often times it’s more obvious than we expect. A few indicators that you are not in your ideal setting are;
- Something feels off.
- Constantly needing validation or confirmation from others. The more happy or sure you are of something, the less you need others to love or be sure of it for you.
- If you feel that you may be good at what you are doing but your achievements don’t excite you or you feel that what you do is not aligned with or goes against your values,
These all indicate that you’re not in an environment that enhances your personality (Esther, 2022). The right environments should make you feel excited and that;
- You can focus well
- You feel sure of yourself and your choices, you don’t feel the need to get validation, approval, or confirmation from others
- And probably most importantly, you feel recharged when you are in your environment.
Science-Backed Adjustments
So what if you don’t feel like this yet? Don’t worry, here are some science-backed environmental adjustments that may help you figure out what setting suits you.
Before we get into the environments, it should be mentioned that regardless of the research done on different environments and their effect on our well-being, the different combination of these elements is personal to each individual. In short, your environment should just feel good to you.
Now here is what research has shown us.
Social-Self
Probably the biggest factor is knowing whether you are an introvert or an extrovert. This is not as simple as just one or the other because many of us don’t fit the stereotype of an antisocial introvert when we are one. Introvert and extrovert are more about what social situation makes us feel recharged (Laney, 2002).
– A good question to ask yourself is after socializing do you feel like you want to socialize again immediately or do you feel you require a break?
If you feel you require a break you most likely recharge alone and tend to lean to the introverted side. If you feel you want to go out again you probably recharge from being around others. Most times we subconsciously chose things we like according to our social needs. Think of what sports you play/ played. Are they group sports or are they more individual? If you are really unsure, asking your caregiver or significant other will probably help you gain a better understanding of yourself, as observing from an outside perspective usually reveals behavioral patterns faster.
Physical-Self
The second aspect of our environment is our physical surroundings. Think of how much sunlight you are getting, What your work environment looks like?
Here are a few questions to ask yourself;
– Do you spend enough time in nature? (Bratman et al., 2019)
– Is your environment cluttered or organized? (Lloyd & Pennington, 2020)
– Do you get enough sunlight in your day to reduce the chances of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)?(Magnusson & Boivin, 2003)
– In what environment do you produce the best quality work in the least amount of time, a coffee shop, a cubical/desk, or a shared space? (Simmons, 2022)
– Does your space look aesthetic to you? (Cold, 2001)
Psychological-Self
The last aspect in our environment is our idea of ourselves.
– Who are you really? not who you want to be.
– What are you good at and what are you not good at, in terms of work and social life?
– What are you passionate about? And do the environments in which you live reflect that? (Smith, 2022)
Journal
Write your answers down on our worksheet, a piece of paper, or digitally if you’d like, the important part is that you note it down. Noting it down will eliminate the need to remember answers in order to see a pattern. See it as a bulletin board if you will. You keep pinning the answers, and when you look back you can see the pattern more clearly and understand them better. Eventually, You should find the, often in hindsight irritatingly (speaking from personal experience) obvious answers right in front of you.
Interview
If answering these questions still does not clarify what your environment should look like, you could reach out to someone that you are close to and have known for a long time and who isn’t afraid to tell you the truth, a friend, partner, or caregiver.
Questionnaires
Lastly, you could do some personality questionnaires. Although helpful, it’s advised to do more than one in addition to journaling and asking others for help. This is to ensure you are not left with both, a biased perspective from only one type of personality questionnaire and not only a purely internal perspective of yourself, as most times personality questionnaires are only filled out by you (Harper, 2022). However, if you’d like the additional information it can provide, then a good website is Truity.
The Takeaway
Now that we know that, actually 50-80% of our personality is made up by our genetics and that our environment has a great impact on our well-being. We can understand that although we can adapt somewhat to our environment, if we want to be the best we can be, we shouldn’t try to adapt to our environment, but instead, look for the environment that best suits us. By looking at our social, psychological, and physical environments, we can discover our preferences within each and adjust our surroundings to match our mindset. Only with the right mindset and self-awareness can we set the right goals and succeed at reaching them. Curious to learn how to set goals so you will accomplish them, head over to the next article here.
Resources
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08: How To Set Goals You Will Accomplish
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