How to Make Big Change Easy
Does your environment support and encourage the life you want to live? Research shows that even if you exert very little effort and change nothing but your environmental cues, significant lifestyle shifts begin to occur.
Much of our day is spent doing things automatically—based on habit or convenience. You likely shop at the grocery store that’s on your way home from work. You likely eat out at the same few restaurants because they are nearby. You likely talk to the people who work near you more than the ones who sit across the office or in another building. You likely reach for the same mug or glass over and over again on the shelf. You likely use the same few pots and pans because they’re the most accessible in your cabinet. The list of habitual actions we take goes on and on.
We evolved to exert the least amount of energy to achieve our goal. It’s instinctual and it’s something we can use to enhance our lives instead of sabotage us. There are simple environmental adjustments you can make—today—to improve your life, one percent at a time.
For example, several years ago I made the decision to begin each day with a delicious, blood sugar-balancing smoothie. I was excited and motivated, but there was one problem. I hated lugging the blender in and out of the cabinet. I also didn’t have enough counter space in my small apartment to leave it out. So I stopped making smoothies every day. It was just too much of an effort in the early morning when I was rushing to work. I was disappointed in myself until I realized that my environment simply wasn’t supporting my goals. This may seem silly to some of you, but here was my game-changer: I moved my blender to a low cabinet where I could plug it into the wall right from where it was. There was no more lugging. I simply opened the cabinet, plugged it in, filled my blender, and turned it on! BOOM. It has been years, I’ve moved, but I still keep my blender in a cabinet, and I still make smoothies nearly every day.
This principle works in reverse, too. For instance, I like to keep some dessert or indulgent snack foods in the house for when company comes over. I’m not a person with strong self control, so this used to be a challenge for me. Every time I opened the pantry, the cookies and crackers were staring me in the face and they were nearly impossible to resist. I knew it wasn’t working for me to keep them there, so I decided to make a change.
I reorganized our pantry so that in the eye-level shelves, I stored items like protein powder, vitamins, nut butters, canned beans and soup, beef sticks, olives, and other healthier items. The indulgent foods I mentioned above—those went in the back or the bottom of the pantry. I made them difficult to reach. And guess what happened? I didn’t touch the crackers, chips, or cookies for WEEKS.
Simple changes like these can help you create a life and environment that makes it easier for you to say yes to the things you want and no to the things you don’t. How can you apply this principle to your home? Where do you keep your yoga mat or weights? Do you store your fruits and veggies in plain view or are they shoved in bags in a drawer? Do you keep candy out of the house, or in a bowl on your countertop?
This week, take a look around and see if there are micro changes you can make in your surroundings to support the life you want to live and the person you want to be. Time to get rearranging!
XO,
Kara
