I want to take you back eight months ago. Eight months ago I was pretty well into my
self-improvement journey. I was very happy with my results that I've seen so far. I've been going
to the gym for almost two years at that point. I had been eating healthy, exercising. My physique
was very nice. I've been doing all these things. Very happy with my progress. And then I, at that
point I've been really starting to focus on my health. Like all these environmental factors,
like estrogenics and all these chemicals that I'm exposed to on a daily basis. And so also at this
point I'm still watching YouTube videos. I'm scrolling through YouTube all the time, watching
stuff. And there's one video that my friend sent me because he sent me a video called esoteric
sleep guide because he was really focusing on improving his sleep and he thought that that
video would be helpful to me. So I watched the video and he's basically talking about all these
different things you can do to improve your sleep. And he talks about like non-sleep deep rest
before going to bed. He also talks about your actual room, your environment, your pillow.
And then he also talks about how your bed is actually bad for you. And that piqued my attention.
He was talking about how most people's beds are actually made of harmful chemicals, harmful
materials that are bad for your health. And you're soaking in that like eight to 10 hours a night,
every single night. So like basically a third of your life is spent soaking in these chemicals.
Now he didn't say like that. He didn't say it like that, but that's basically what he was saying.
And that obviously since I was really focused on my health, that piqued my interest. And so he
provided a few different solutions. One solution was to get a new bed and he suggested this brand
that was that created very like natural beds and didn't have any harmful chemicals in them.
But it was pretty pricey. It was very expensive like in the thousands of dollars, I think. And
mind you, I am a broke high school student. So that was not an option for me. And the second option
was very interesting to me because it he basically suggested a tatami mat, which is basically
where they took grass and wove it together and created a mat out of it. It's basically like sleeping
on the floor. And then he said that the samurai's actually slept on those. So this and I'm thinking
to myself, oh, these samurai's like they are hardened people like they are beasts, like they are men.
And then I'm thinking like they slept on the floor. So that piqued my interest because one,
it's pretty cool to sleep on the floor. Like that makes you a hard person. And then two,
it's also helping your health, which is what my focus was at that time.
So I finished watching the video. And what do I do? Absolutely nothing relatable, right? You
watch a whole YouTube video and don't take any action. Yep. So I finished watching this video
and then go on with my life. And a couple weeks later, I, a couple weeks later, I start thinking,
I wanted to start focusing on meditation and I wanted to get meditation actually consistent
in my routine. And at this point, I'd been meditating inconsistently for maybe a year. And
the reason why I was inconsistent was because I would always meditate after my gym session.
So after my workout, I would meditate at the gym in like the yoga studio. And it was not
consistent because sometimes the studio would be blocked, like they would be used, or I simply
just would take a rest day from the gym. And then I wouldn't be able to meditate that day.
And so I needed a solution on how to actually make my bed or I wanted to make my, I want to,
okay, so I needed a solution on how to get consistent at meditation. And so I'm thinking to
myself, well, what's the simplest way to get consistent at something? Well, add it to your
routine. And what type, like what part of your day is basically a guarantee to accomplish certain
things the morning. So I decided to add meditation to my morning routine. And I'm thinking, well,
one issue that I had with meditation in the past was I attached it to a location that I wasn't
guaranteed to be at every day. And that was an issue. So the solution was attach it to a, or
attach it to a location that I was guaranteed to be at every single day, which was the place,
the simplest place that came to mind was my room, because I sleep in my room. So that's
basically a guarantee that I'm going to be there every single day. Because I'm at my house,
I live at my house the majority of the year, like we only go on vacation a couple times a year. So
I'm trying to think like, how can I cultivate a perfect environment for my,
for meditation in my room? And a couple days go by where I try to meditate on the floor right next
right next to my bed. And it just is uncomfortable. I didn't really like it. And I found that like
the situation was not very good. And then so I'm thinking like, how can I figure this out? And then
in a moment, in an instant, a flash came to my mind, like I instantly remembered the tatami mat.
And I was like, Oh, tatami mat meditation. And then another flash came to mind. I instantly
visualize like this image of my room in the future. I like, or not necessarily in the future, but I
visualized a possibility of what my room could look like. And it was just completely empty
with nothing but a tatami mat. And at this point, my room is, it's got like, it's pretty full. It's
got a bed, a fan, air purifier, a drawer, a dresser, like all kinds of things. And my room is not
very big. It's pretty small actually. So it actually used to be an office. So it's not too big of a
space. And so I basically think like, Oh, that's perfect. I can get this tatami mat and it'll help
improve my health. And then it also be extremely beneficial to create my environment for this
for meditation, create an optimal environment for meditation. And another thing that I saw in my
image, like this vision that I saw in my mind was blackout curtains on my door and my window
to block out all the light. So I can have absolute darkness for my sleep, because I was also thinking
about how I could optimize my sleep as well. So all of these things, it was a perfect storm of like,
three or four different benefits from buying this one thing. So I made the decision, I bought the mat.
And I didn't want to go ahead and get rid of my bed right away, because I didn't know how
like it would feel to sleep on the mat. I didn't know if it would be impossible to sleep on it.
And I also bought the pillow that I went back to that YouTube video and bought the pillow that he
recommended, because I found that the pillow that I use, like it was like a feather pillow,
it was not very comfortable. Oftentimes, it would leave my head or my neck strained for the rest of
the day. So I bought this pillow. And it was a buckwheat pillow that's like adjustable in size.
Perfect for me. So I bought the pillow, bought the mat and they came and I slept on the mat
in the corner of my room, the only open space in my room for the first night. And I slept
fine is all right for the first night. And I loved it. Like I didn't actually sleep that great,
because I wasn't used to sleeping on the mat yet. But I loved it because I just love the vibe it
created. So the next day, I just went through and stripped my entire room of everything. And I put
all of the things that were kind of essential for my day to day living in my closet. So I was putting
my like drawer, like my cabinet drawer, and then my dresser in my closet. So now the only thing in
my room is my tatami mat and like a fan and like a journal. And that's it. And the air purifier.
So I'm thinking like, this is my room now. And in reflection, in hindsight, there was actually a
hidden fifth benefit to that, which outweighed all of the other benefits. And this benefit was so
powerful that it actually propelled me on a journey that caused me to improve my life and improve my
rate of self improvement 10 fold so much more. And it was the simple environment change that I made.
Now let me explain. Before my room looked normal. It was just a room that 99% of people had, like the
majority of people had. It was common. And as a result, I was holding myself to that standard. I saw
my environment and I was like, Oh, this is just who I am. I am common. I'm an average person.
And then when I made that change in my room and made it completely different.
Now my room is uncommon. My room is a room that only 1% of people have, like not very many people
have this type of room. So now my environment, now I'm holding myself to a much different standard,
according to my environment. Now I look around and I see my environment. I'm like, this is who I am.
I hold myself to a much higher uncommon standard, the 1% standard. So the change to my physical
environment actually caused me to hold myself up to much higher standard. And it's also not just a
conscious standard. It's a subconscious thing too. Like I wasn't very conscious of the fact that,
Oh, this is my room. This is how I am. It was a subconscious thing. It wasn't very some, it wasn't
something I was aware of. Even like with my room today, I'm not really like conscious of the fact
that I'm holding myself up to a higher like a level that's in parallel to my environment.
But it's definitely there. Like I'm definitely holding myself up to a higher level. And so much
so that my rate of self improvement improved so much faster. And I was, I found that I was pushing
myself a lot harder, a lot easier, just because that was just who I am now. That was just my identity.
And I didn't really connect all of these dots until today. Like I do a daily walk every day.
And over the past couple of days, I've been really reflective over like different changes that I've
made, because I'm trying to figure out like brainstorm this video idea that I'm coming up with.
And one of the conclusions I came to was, I have an uncommon room. So now I'm holding myself to an
uncommon standard. So that's like, that's the true power of having of taking control of your
environment. Your environment is really the standard that you set for yourself. Your environment
sets the precedent for who you become. And there are actually like your that's your physical
environment. And I came to the conclusion that there's actually three different types of environments.
There's the physical environment, the mental environment and the social environment. But
right now I just want to focus on the physical environment just temporarily because your room
is not the only type of physical environment. Your workspace, your kitchen, your house, your home,
like anywhere that you're spending time in that's a physical location, like any physical area around
you from a day to day basis is your physical environment. And it doesn't have to be a room
or a place. It could also be simple things. Like one thing that I realized was like cleanliness. If
your environment is dirty, like if you allow dust to build up, or if you allow the dishes to build
up in the kitchen, like this is your environment as well. So it could be temporary things and it
could be more long term things. So that's your physical environment. And I also want to talk about
your mental environment. And to explain this, I want to bring your attention to, I want to,
I want to tell you a story of a man who will call Johnny. Now, Johnny is just an average person.
He's a sleeper, which basically means that he goes about his day, like it's a daydream. He's not
very conscious or he's not really trying to control his reality. He's just kind of getting
swept along life, getting swept along by the current. And this is a very common thing. Like
most people are like this. And Johnny, he doesn't control his thoughts. His mental landscape, his
like inner mental mind, his like inner monologue and all like everything that's going on in his mind
is a wild land. He lets it, he lets his mental landscape
shape, ravage uncontrollably. He allows his thought process to be uncontrolled. And as a result,
he's living a extremely uncontrolled life. He's living a life that is not very great to live.
Johnny, often Johnny does not have very high self control. He gets put into, he actually succumbs
to instant gratification a lot. He is not able to discipline himself. He doesn't control his thoughts.
And now, now I want to talk about another person, Jonathan. Jonathan is the macho alpha man
that everyone looks up to. Jonathan lives such a life of self control that he does not give into
instant gratification like Johnny does. Jonathan lives such a life that he, his life is always
getting better week after week. In 10 years, Jonathan's life will be extremely, will be so much better
than it was. Now, and Jonathan, his mental landscape is very controlled. He understands the importance
of Jonathan understands that self control is a law of success. Jonathan also understands that
self control is solely a matter of thought control. And with this simple understanding,
he takes extreme care over his mental landscape. He does not let negative thoughts
inside of his mind. And he does not allow uncontrolled emotions or uncontrolled thoughts
to ravage his mental landscape. And as a result, his life is a extremely disciplined, disciplined
and controlled, peaceful, very inspiring life. It's an amazing life, the type of life that
people long for. And Jonathan just understands the simple fact that your reality is a reflection
of your mind. And he understands that if he simply just controls his mind, then he will be able to
shape his world into how he desires. And he understands that this takes a long time, but it
does work and it does happen. So what's the difference between Johnny and Jonathan? Well,
Jonathan, there's a lot actually, there's a lot of differences. But one key difference from this
story is that Jonathan actually controls his mental landscape or his mental environment.
He understands the importance of your environment. And he also knows that your mental is an extremely
powerful environment. Because I would go so far to argue that it is the only environment.
It is the base. It's the stem of the way we live. It is the origin of how we experience life.
Your mental environment is primary. And the physical environment is secondary. For many reasons.
One reason, your world, the world is a mirror. But also another reason is your experiencing
the world or interpreting the world through your mind. And you can change those interpretations
based off of your controlled attention and your selection of your thoughts. So that's the mental
environment. And then I want to talk about the third type of environment, which is the social
environment. There is a well known quote called, you are the average of the five people you spend
the most time with. This quote is so well known that it became a household quote. So the point
where parents actually warn their children early on in life, they warn them who they choose as
friends. Who they choose. They're like, they warn them to carefully choose their friends. Because
they understand that you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.
And you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. So that means that the
people around you are shaping who you are. So all of these, let's say you're hanging out with drug
addicts. They are shaping you to become a drug addict. Let's say you're hanging out with
people who are addicted to social media or addicted to candy addicted to fast food. Or if you're even
less extreme, you're hanging out with the common person, the 99% the average person, you're hanging
out with mediocrity, well then you will become that as well. So this is a thing that is very
important to understand. Because you, the five people you spend your most time with are shaping
you into who you will become. Now you may think, oh, there's no hope. But there is because you can
actually choose who you hang out with. But even if it takes a long term effort to change who you
hang out with, for example, let's say you are in a financial situation where you have to kind of be
around this person for a long term time before you can move on. Even if you're in a situation like
even if you're in a situation like that, it's not all lost because there is a principle and it's a
principle of suggestion. So this principle is basically how your environment, everything around
you is sending you information and you're sending it to your subconscious mind. And your subconscious
mind takes it literally and the subconscious mind does not have reasoning. It basically takes everything
that's said to it and it becomes a part of itself. So that's why the quote, you are the average of
five people you spend the most time with is true because the five people that you spend the most
time with are sending you basically information of who you are. So they're basically acting their
lives out and then they're simultaneously sending your subconscious information on who you are.
So does that make sense? Your subconscious is interpreting all this information and as a result
it's taking it and becoming, it's basically taking that information and putting it back into itself
and it's becoming that. So the five people around you are sending your subconscious information and
that subconscious is basically consuming that information and now it's becoming a part of it.
So with that said, that's the principle of suggestion. But then there's also the principle
of auto suggestion which is your conscious mind communicates to your subconscious mind. So the
principle of auto suggestion is anything you say to yourself. So that's what affirmations are.
Anything you say to yourself becomes a part of yourself. So that's why negative self talk is
very dangerous because you're basically telling yourself that this is who you are, whether it's
negative or positive. And that's why positive affirmations are very beneficial and good because
that's, you're telling yourself that's what you are. And this principle of auto suggestion actually
has plays a key part because when you are experiencing the world, you're experiencing it
through your mind. And there are two parts of the mind, the conscious mind and the subconscious mind.
And it's the subconscious mind job to basically gather all the information and make it a part
of itself. And then it's the subcon... Okay, so the... Since the subconscious mind can't really
decipher the information, it just trusts everything that it's given to it. That means that it's the
consciousness, the conscious mind's job to protect the subconscious at all costs. So that means it's
our conscious mind's job to filter all information sent to us and filter out the bad and only send
the good to our subconscious because everything that gets sent to the subconscious becomes a part
of ourselves. So with that understanding, we take a look at the quote you are the average of the
five people you spend the most time with. This quote can actually be defended. So let me explain.
You can actually fight against that. So the five people you spend time with, they are sending you
information through the principle of suggestion. But all suggestion has to get filtered through
your consciousness before it can be sent to your subconscious through the principle of
auto suggestion. So that means that all all information sent to your subconscious is through
auto suggestion and not suggestion. So suggestion alone cannot make it to your subconscious. So
suggestion alone is not dangerous. It's only dangerous when it gets through the conscious mind,
the sentinel guard of our being. So with that said, that let's tie this back to the mental
environment because when you're controlling your thoughts, you can control all of the information
sent to your subconscious mind. And that's where the social environment plays a key role because
if you're in a bad social environment where you're surrounding yourself with negative people,
that you don't want to be like people that are not indicative of your goals. These people are
basically sending you suggestions and you have a choice. You can either control your thoughts and be
impeccable in your attention, controlling your attention and not let any of that garbage in
or you can be like Johnny and be a sleeper and just let everything in. So that is the decision
that we're making on a day to day basis. And that is where you can actually defend against your
social environment. So understanding that, I want to be careful because you may think that
you can now be immune and now it's okay to hang out with whoever you want. And I want to be careful.
I want to warn you because your conscious mind will slip up. No matter how hard you try, your
conscious mind will slip up and there will be a stream of information sent to your subconscious
that you do not want there. It takes years of practice. That's what the monks do. The monks go
out into the temple and they meditate for years just to attain impeccable thought control. So
you're not going to be able to just be impeccable in your thought control right away. It gets a skill
that takes years to cultivate. And so that's why you got to be careful with your social environment
because yes, you can protect against a lot of it if you're conscious and you decide to do it.
But you should only do that in cases like I explained earlier where you can't really make a
short term. Like you can't really change it unless you change it in the long term. Like this is your
life for now. So like for example, you're financially dependent on someone. You're basically
dependent on them to be there and then it'll be a long term change to become financially independent.
So that's why you should definitely focus on your social environment. And in most cases,
you can change your social environment. You can stop hanging out with friends. You can move on from
people. But that's the third type of your environment, the social environment. And to recap,
this physical environment, the mental environment and the social environment, they're all extremely
important and they should all be taken extreme care and attention towards. And they're all connected
as well.