#287-1. You are a product of your environment. So choose the environment that will best develop you toward your objective. Analyze your life in terms of its environment. Are the things around you helping you toward success—or are they holding you back?
-W. Clement Stone
#287-2. You are the embodiment of the information you choose to accept and act upon. To change your circumstances you need to change your thinking and subsequent actions.
-Adlin Sinclair
#287-3. How we choose what we do, and how we approach it... will determine whether the sum of our days adds up to a formless blur, or to something resembling a work of art.
-Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
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The advice embodied in these three quotes, in this order, can be a powerful technique to apply. We do not pay much attention to what is around us: the people, values, culture, facilities, sounds, sights and smells we surround ourselves with can have a subtle but steady influence on our moods.
Our maturity is in overcoming any negative effects of our environment through what we decide to focus upon. If we tend to magnify the negative, there always seems to be enough of it. I can train myself to magnify the possibilities, which impels me into positive action. This, in turn, may influence changes in my environment.
If we are able to acquire the habit to do these things regularly, our activities and progress can attain a coherence, can lead to a bigger vision. This is what Steve Jobs and others call “connecting the dots”.
2 comments:
A story shared by my friend which relates to quote 3 above:
This is a story of two brothers. One was a drug addict and a drunker who frequently beat up his family. The other one was a very successful businessman who was respected in society and had a wonderful family. Some people wanted to find out why two brothers from the same parents, brought up in the same environment, could be so different.
The first one was asked, "How come you do what you do? You are a drug addict, a drunk, and you beat your family. What motivates you?"
He said, "My father."
They asked, "What about your father?"
The reply was, "My father was a drug addict, a drunk and he beat his family. What do you expect me to be? That is what I am."
They went to the brother who was doing everything right and asked him the same question.
"How come you are doing everything right? What is your source of motivation?"
And guess what he said? "My father. When I was a little boy, I used to see my dad drunk and doing all the wrong things. I made up my mind that that is not what I wanted to be."
Summary: You can choose what you want to be ... irrespective of the circumstances.
Reading again... the story relates to the theme and all 3 quotes ... not just one.
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