So like I said in the intro of yesterday's episode, some of the, some of my favorite things
about self-improvement is the one-time changes. So yesterday I talked about the one-time change
of deleting your social media account. You just do that once and you get a lifetime of benefit
and reward from that one action that takes two minutes. So, and I also hinted that there are other
things like one-time changes that you can make, which there are a lot of one-time changes that
you can make and a lot in the environment category. So basically this environment is your workplace,
your room, your leisurely areas, and this can also be like people that you surround yourself with.
So friends, family, peers, classmates, roommates, like all these people. And then also your phone,
like your environment on your phone and your computer. So is your phone set up in such a way
to where it has an optimal environment? So like, do you have video games on it or do you not?
Do you have social media or do you not? Do you have entertainment or no? Are your apps hidden
or no? Like, and this is like the, if you're interested in the phone category, then check out
an episode in a couple days. I'm going to be posting an episode in the future. I don't remember what
number it is, but I haven't recorded it yet, but it's going to be in a couple days. Stay tuned
for the following couple days for a episode on the phone category. But there's, like I said,
there's a few different categories of your environment. So let's talk about, to start,
let's just talk about your workspace. This is the one that I just most recently changed.
So if you're watching on the YouTube, then you can tell that the recording setup is completely
different than it was on my last couple of episodes. Yesterday's episode was the first,
actually, the Calisthenics episode was my first episode that I recorded in this setup. And the
way I record these episodes is that I basically batch record them. So I record like eight, seven,
basically seven to nine episodes at a time. So right now I think I have eight or nine episodes
that I'm going to record and I'm on my third one. And if you're watching, like I said, on the YouTube,
you can see my environment is completely different. And this is because I understand the value of
those one time changes in your environment because my old environment was just out in the open.
It was unprofessional looking. And so because of that, it was sending a message to my subconscious
that I am not a professional. And that's not good. It's fine for a temporary thing, but that is
actually going to damage you long term. So that's why it's best if you as quickly as possible change
your environment. And so that's what I did. I made it a lot more professional. I actually believe
that this looks like a professional setup. And obviously I still have a lot of work to do because
this may look actually this may look like an amateur setup from the recording. But when I'm
looking at the screen, like you can only see me, but I can see the whole setup that I have over
here. And this actually looks pretty professional because I have studio lights. And then I have my
computer and on lamps, like my desk, all this stuff. So this looks professional to me. And that's
all that really matters because it's sending me a message. It's sending my subconscious a message
that I'm a professional. And this is my like, I take this seriously, because your environment is a
reflection of your mind. So that basically means that your mind is your, okay, so your environment
is going to send your mind messages and your mess, your mind is going to take those and basically
make them become a part of yourself. So that's your workspace. That's what I did made my workspace
a lot more professional looking. But then there's another thing that you can do.
Minimalism for workspace and minimalism is extremely important because like I said, your
environment is a reflection of your mind. So you don't want a bunch of nonsense all over the place.
Like you only want essential items at your in your environment. Like if there's items that you never
use, they shouldn't be there. So that's what I did. I went through and cleared my desk. I had a bunch
of like sheets of papers that never looked at anymore. A bunch of like trash, like a bunch of
garbage all over the place on my desk. And I basically cleared it all out. And now the only
things that I have on my desk are things that use every single day. So that's another way to fix your
environment, professionalism and minimalism. And now let's look at another aspect of your
environment. Your your room, your room in your closet. Oh, maybe four or five months ago.
Maybe six months ago. I don't know. Over the summer, I decided to get rid of my bed.
And as a result, I went down this path of over the next couple of days, clearing out my entire room.
Now the only thing in my room is like a tatami mat, which is what I sleep on, which is this small
little mat that's made of grass. It's like rush grass. So it's not like soft, but it's like
hard. It's kind of like the texture of hay, maybe I don't know. But the only things in my room are
essentials that I use every day, like my fan, my bed, and a journal, and then like a timer, a
stopwatch. And so this is another thing that I did to basically change my life. The title of this
episode is change your environment, change your life. And these one time changes really do impact
your life tremendously, because I remember my emotional or my, my mental clarity at that time
was not that great. And this, and now my mental clarity is superb. And that does come like,
it's not just the environment that, that did that. It's also my intentional practice of my
intentional focus. What's the word? It's me being intentional about how I place my attention or
where I place my attention. So basically, my mental clarity is so much stronger. I'm so much more
clear in the mind now. And I'm, I'm, I found that I'm holding myself way more accountable,
because if I come home, go to bed to a dirty room, or a room that just ha just looks like
mediocrity, it just looks like a bunch of garbage looks like the average person's room, well, then
I'm going to treat myself as such, I'm going to treat myself as an average person, and I'm going
to hold myself up to those standards. But when I have my room, how it is right now, it does not
look normal. It looks extremely, it looks extreme. Like if none of my friends other than like, okay,
so right now I have like school friends, which I don't really talk to anymore. And then I have
like friends that are on self improvement, which I only have two. So basically, I only have two
friends because I only have two friends that are on self improvement that I actually talked to. And
even then I only talked to them once a month. But then there's also people, okay, so that was a
side tangent. So if any of my school friends saw this saw my room, they would definitely be extremely
shocked, like take anyone from the street and they'd be shocked, any average person. So that new
sense, or that new, the new environment that my room is creating for me is basically allowing myself
to hold myself to a higher standard because my room is to an elite level. So that means I have
to hold myself to an elite level. So it just makes it easier because it's more a part of my identity.
Like your identity is also tied to your environment, I believe. So when you change your environment,
you can also start to change your identity. And then there's also your, the another part of the
environment that I didn't really talk about was where you spend most of your day. So originally,
I was spending most of my day at school. And that's a terrible environment for me. So that's why I got
rid of it. And there's a lot of reasons why school is a terrible environment for the mental reasons,
but also for the physical reasons. I'm not going to get into that because that's a whole conversation
on itself that I don't really care much to talk about anymore, because I don't really care much
about school to be honest. So I'm not going to spend much time talking about it anymore. And so
the school is another thing. If you're spending a lot of time somewhere that you don't want to be,
then you got to get out of there and quit or drop out or graduate early. Basically,
that's what I did. I graduated early because I didn't want to be there. So the decision was
simple. Get out of there as quick as possible. But then the other part of your environment that I
mentioned earlier was the people you surround yourself with. So this is another thing with school.
At school, you're surrounding yourself with a bunch of people that are not like-minded. So
they're going to be affecting you. The quote of, you're the average of the five people you spend
your most time with, that is true. And I'm realizing that people actually change you.
Like I had one flashback the other day to school and it was back when I was getting into reading,
first getting into reading. And I started reading a lot of books and I was getting a lot of knowledge.
And I became very book smart to where I was able to just shoot out a bunch of facts about random
stuff that didn't really matter. And I remember in the locker room when we were changing because
we were in the swim unit. So we were at school changing in the locker room. And I was just
talking about a bunch of facts. And my friend was like, actually no, this is not even the story I
wanted to tell. The story I wanted to tell was we were in the locker room and we were changing.
And the thing is that in the school locker room, the social kind of- what people my age do when
it's time to change like into a swimsuit is they do this weird thing with a towel and they like
strip themselves under the towel and then put their swimsuit on from under the towel. It's weird.
It's basically you're hiding your your shlong, you're hiding your goods from everyone. But it's
like, I don't care to do that. So I just strip naked in front of everyone. I don't care. Because
that's what men do. They don't care. They just do whatever they want. So I'm stripping down and
I never shave my balls. This is getting really personal, but I'm gonna still- I did not plan on
talking about this stuff, but I'm gonna keep going because I don't shave my balls. So I've got a
force growing down there. And they were basically saying like one of the dudes was like, James,
you gotta- I mean, I'm not looking or anything, but you should probably shave down there. Like trim
it up a little bit because you got a bush growing. And I'm like, dude, it doesn't matter because I'm
not getting any play anyways. And I never really say stuff like that. That was just like- it just
was a spur of the moment thing. Like- and then people were like shocked. One of my other friends was
like, dang, I never thought that I've- I would hear you say something like that. Like you're
changing. And I didn't think much of it at the time, but literally like a year later, the other day,
like that happened- that story happened a year ago. And the other day, I'm thinking back and I'm like,
man, they were changing me because that's stuff that they were saying. That's the kind of things
that they said, not me. They were changing me. And so in hindsight, I'm really glad I made the decision
to just get out of school because people change you for the better or the worse. And this is your
friends, your classmates, your peers, your coworkers, your bosses, your teachers, your- even your parents
and your siblings. Like all these people change you and they share a piece of themselves to you
and that becomes a part of you just because you're choosing to spend time with them. And there's a lot
of people that I spent time with in my life that I just don't want to be like. And so if you're in
that situation, then you should definitely start to take steps towards getting out of that because
that's one of those things that'll definitely help you. Like it's not helping being around these types
of people. And the thing is that the people that I was around, they weren't even bad. Like there's-
like I know people who are on self-improvement that used to be around like drug addicts and people
that smoked weed all day. Like those people, those are definitely bad habits. But the type of people
that I was spending my time around, they didn't- I mean yeah, they might have done drugs but never
around me. Like I was just around them during the school day and they weren't really doing anything.
Like they weren't bad, it's just they weren't who I wanted to become. So you got to ask yourself,
who are you surrounding yourself with and do you want to become them? So if you- if the answer is
no, then the decision should be easy. Stop spending time with them. So that's why I cut out all my
old friends and now I only have a select few people that I actually spend time with. And I
actually have a mastermind set up with them. And I don't even spend time with them that often.
We only spend time once a month. This is- that's the rate we've been doing lately,
but it might- might be longer. It depends on where we're at in a month. But with that- with
all that said, just make sure that you really take into consideration and be intentional about
the environment that you're surrounding yourself with, the environment that you are choosing to be
a part of, because it will become a part of you.