The times in my life when I had the best habits, I was never alone. There were always people around me pulling me up.
The Toughest Year of My Life
I spent 99% of tenth grade in class, on public transit, walking through snowstorms or playing basketball. I bused to school at 7:15am and got home around 9:00pm most days.
I would bus to my gym, lift weights, subway and walk to another part of town, practice basketball, subway and walk home, eat, study and go to bed.
And I did 90% of my homework on the subway, balancing my laptop and notebook on my knees like I was eating at a cookout.
I don’t know how on earth I did that. To this day, it was physically and mentally the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I was sorta miserable to be fair. But I did it. I look back and I can only explain it one way.
The IB Program
In eighth grade, my school announced they would be piloting the IB-Program the next year and they were taking applications. One group of 25 students would have every class together. They would all be taught at the advanced level with extra work for the program.
Truthfully, I thought that sounded awful and I wanted no part of it. But I made the fortunate mistake of letting my mom hear about it before applications were due. She told me how important it was to surround myself with hard workers. I didn’t understand but I reluctantly agreed to apply.
The class average on tests went from an 80 to a 90 and a 90 to a 98. We went from flexing how many beers we could drink to flexing how many hours we studied for a test.
Changing Your Environment To Improve Behavior
Being surrounded by hard working, competitive students had a flywheel effect that made everybody work harder. The environment changed the people and the people changed the environment.
It’s embarrassing but I remember crying when I get an 88 on a science test because the average was a 95. Very cringe.
I realized later than my mom was right. My environment crafted my behaviors. It was a huge lesson for me. I saw how much more I was capable of when I spent time with people whose default behavior was my desired behavior.
Since seeing that lesson play out, I’m much more aware of my environment and I avoid bad influences like the plague! I always look to spend time with people whose default behaviors are my desired behaviors now (read more on pg.34). Another trick I learned to change my habits is to add friction to negative behaviors and reduce friction to positive behaviors.
These are just two of many ways we can Build Strength to overcome our mental defaults. We’re gonna go into much more detail on Building Strength as we enter Part 2 after tomorrow’s reading break.
*The reading break is intended to give you time to catch-up on reading you might have missed, revisit a chapter you liked and read my beautiful words on your screen one extra time!
Key Takeaways
Your environment affects your behavior
Change your behaviors by changing your environment
Brains Gains
Who are the 5 people you spent the most time with? If someone told you you’re just like them, would you consider it a compliment?
Have a a great day, BigNerds. Go crush!
Your Friend,
Noah “BigNerd” Sochaczevski
PS. Add the BigNerds Book Club Calendar to your calendar app to always be up to date on reading, reading breaks and other events!
Really enjoyed this one!