Are you religious in your adherence to the “reduce, reuse, and recycle” lifestyle?

Have you ever spent a weekend chained to a condemned tree, squared off against an approaching bulldozer?

Extreme environmentalism… it’s like a Chia pet for your car!

No?

Neither have I.

But my observations of some of these extreme environmentalist types (living in Austin gives me plenty of opportunities to people watch) got me thinking…

We can learn something here.  Something that can help us dominate when it comes to business.

I don’t agree with their extreme methods.  But these environmentalists are right in recognizing the critical importance of one’s surroundings on one’s wellbeing.

If your surroundings are jacked up, you’ll have a lot tougher (or impossible) time trying to thrive.

With that in mind . . .

How’s your business environment?

Are your surroundings structured in a way to encourage success?  Or are you just jumping from task to task without a clear vision of what you’re trying to accomplish?

Do you set aside time every day to proactively generate new business ideas?

Do you start marketing your product at the point you conceive it (or, better yet, before you conceive it) in your mind?  Or do you develop your products in a vacuum and worry about marketing later?

I’ve tried (and failed) at the whole “goal setting” thing an embarrassing number of times now.  But I’ve found success by focusing on what I can control right now to maximize my chances to succeed in the future

And that’s engineering an environment for success.

Seal off any holes so time-sucking predators (idle internet browsing, depressing friends, doubters, haters, etc.) can’t get in and mess things up.

Cut all of them out.  Ruthlessly.

If you have a chaotic personality like me, fight through the inertia and bring some structure into your life.  Check out timeboxing or the Pomodoro Technique for some of my favorite time management strategies.

The cool thing about being human is our ability to shape our environments.  Sure, there’s some resistance at first.  But

Whether we like it or not, our environment shapes us back.

By all means, keep “setting goals” if that motivates you.

But for everyone else, focus on eliminating distractions, reducing friction, and taking free will out of the equation.

Do the work now to make success the default setting.

And enjoy the momentum as inertia carries you down the hill.

P.S. How have you structured your life to encourage financial success?  I’d love to hear your ideas, routines, etc. because I’m always on the look out for new ideas to implement.  Leave me a comment and let me know.

P.P.S. “Be regular and ordinary in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.” – Gustave Flaubert