Environment Beats Willpower

Most people think change comes down to discipline.

Trying harder. Being more consistent. Having more willpower.

But what if that’s not the real problem?

In this episode, we explore a powerful leadership and personal growth truth inspired by John Maxwell’s Law of Environment:

Your environment shapes your behavior more than your willpower does.

We break down the four environments influencing your life every day—physical, social, digital, and emotional—and how each one is quietly shaping your habits, mindset, and identity.

You’ll learn:

• Why nearly half of our daily behavior is driven by habit, not decision
• How social contagion spreads behaviors, attitudes, and culture
• The hidden impact of your digital environment on focus and mental health
• How leaders shape culture by designing environments—not controlling people

We also share real-world examples from psychology, leadership, and military experience to show how environments can either support growth or quietly sabotage it.

And most importantly, we give you simple, practical ways to start changing your environment this week—so growth becomes easier, not harder.

Because sometimes the problem isn’t your discipline…

It’s your environment.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Hey everyone, welcome back to Trail Talks, the podcast where we talk about growth, the messy, the beautiful, and everything in between. I'm your host, Kelly Kruger, founder of Kelly Michelle Coaching, where we focus on mindset, emotional intelligence, and leadership, all grounded in real life and real science. And joining me is my co-host and partner in growth, founder of Leading People LLC Terrace Toinet, the leadership trainer and facilitator who brings insight, curiosity, and real world perspective to every episode. So wherever you're listening from today, we're glad you're here. And thank you for joining us on the trail.

SPEAKER_00 0:39

Let's do it. Hey guys, welcome back. We're so excited to be here. And again, as always, thank you so much to all of our listeners and all the support that we've been receiving. It has been absolutely phenomenal. We're so glad that you guys love us so much that you join us every week. It's amazing. Um, and today we have a pretty interesting topic to talk about. But first, Kel, we didn't ask each other last episode. How are you feeling?

SPEAKER_01 1:08

We didn't do it. I just had 15 minutes worth of technical difficulties. I'm a little frustrated right now. Oh my god. Um, I'm feeling good. That's good.

SPEAKER_00 1:21

How are you feeling? I'm tired because it's been a long week. It's only Monday, guys. But it's only Monday, but you know, but I am feeling inspired because I had a really good class today that I was um actually participating in. So feeling inspired, but also very tired. Oh yeah, it's been a long week. It's been a long what class are you in? True colors. Oh, tell me about it. Yeah, I'm gonna be an instructor for true colors. It's a um basically a personality assessment, and they break it down into four easy colors: green, blue, orange, and gold. And it kind of lets you know like what you're is it like four lenses?

SPEAKER_01 2:01

Is it four lenses? It's not four lenses, but it's similar.

unknown 2:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 2:06

I learned something about four lenses. I think I have that here. After the episode, I'll show you it, but I think I have a little booklet.

SPEAKER_00 2:14

So, yeah, similar to four lenses, but it's called True Colors Personality Assessment. It basically helps leadership lead their people, understand how they work, how they operate, how they communicate. A lot of it is based around communication, though. What color are you? I'm an orange green. What's orange green? Orange is the crazy person. So I'm very adventurous, spontaneous, but I'm a quick thinker, quick on my feet, things like that. There's no but there's no but. It's and it's and okay, and there we go. And I um don't really like routine, and I hate to be put in a box. Yeah, understandable. Yes, yep. But and the gold was my very last. Gold is like you're super organized, and things have to be you you follow the rules, and I'm like, oh no, no way.

SPEAKER_01 3:06

Okay, I like rules, but I don't think I'm very organized. Yeah, I mean, rules have to exist, but I like structure, but I don't think I'm organized. Yeah. All right, what are we what are we talking about today? We're talking about environment and why environment is important.

SPEAKER_00 3:24

Yeah, how it can also help you grow because we talk a lot about mindset and changing your mindset. We don't really talk about environment, how that also affects your mindset.

SPEAKER_01 3:34

Yeah, we touched on it in an earlier episode, it might have been seven or eight when we were talking about goal setting, but yeah, we briefly touched on it, and then I think we talked about it in the gritty eight, which had to do with the journey of the goal, and then we briefly talked about it last week. So then we decided, hey, let's let's take a deeper look at this. And we're fans of John Maxwell. We are, and in John Maxwell's Laws of Growth, 15 laws of invaluable growth. And yeah, I think it is it number six, the law of the environment. Yep. So that's uh so yeah, we're gonna we're gonna talk about the environment. So what do we mean by environment?

SPEAKER_00 4:20

Um, it can be us, it could be several things. It can be your workplace, your group of friends, who you surround yourself with, social media, and even your own home.

SPEAKER_01 4:29

Yeah, I just I just talked with um I just talked about this with the students actually the last few weeks I have. And you know, you can go to, well, let's just talk about you. You're doing the true colors, and you're probably gonna be very, very motivated after. You're gonna have a lot of momentum to apply what you're learning. But if you go back to your workplace or a space that is important to you, and the environment isn't supporting your growth, then what's gonna happen?

SPEAKER_00 5:07

Yeah. I mean, we can start with physical environment. Um, and yeah, and it means like your home, your workspace, a clutter, organization, even the lighting, heck having no windows can affect your environment and how and your productivity within your workplace. Yeah, your home is everything. It's gotta bring you peace. Oh, yes. That's why yesterday, when you were like, You want to do the podcast? I'm like, because I went on a throwaway spree. Like I cleaned out all the drawers, everything needed to be organized. I was like freaking out, but I feel better today because I did it.

SPEAKER_01 5:44

Yeah, and it's it's kind of like you sleep better just knowing you have a clean home. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 5:50

Oh my gosh. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 5:52

Um, so yeah, we uh it's different kinds of environments. So this is the physical, it's your home, your workspace, clutter or organization, lighting and noise, routines and structure. So if your home is full of distractions, junk food and chaos, it becomes harder to build healthy habits. So is your is your home supporting your growth? Is supporting is your home supporting you in improving or building better habits? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:22

And then if we take it back to the work workplace as well, I know for me, I mean, if you're in the military and you're active duty, probably don't have much of a choice. But if you're in the corporate world, you kind of do have a choice of where you want to work, right? And um I did some research and Google is one of the number is the number one search engine or whatever is the most creative because of how their environment that they provide. Hell, they have nap pods.

SPEAKER_02 6:50

Yeah, isn't that crazy?

SPEAKER_00 6:52

Nap pods. Um, and then they just allow their people to have ownership of their projects, they allow them to work from wherever they feel innovative and creative at. And I for me, that's important. I need that. Autonomy, yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:08

That goes that goes back to God, I forgot his name. I have his book. I'll come over that in a minute, but it's about what motivates people, and we're all motivated by autonomy, mastery, and purpose. And autonomy is figuring things out, working on your own time, being trusted to do so. And we all like we all want autonomy. It's so it's Daniel Pink, that's the author of the book Drive. It's a great book, but he specializes in motivation theory and and the three things are autonomy, mastery, purpose, and all of that is tied to intrinsic motivation. Um, you know, trying to get away from extrinsic, which still exists somewhat, but intrinsic, and it's autonomy and uh COVID for the two or three years we were in COVID, post-COVID, we were able to have a little bit of autonomy with remote work, telework, and and then the mastery is we all want to be really good at what we do. And then the purpose is we thrive on purpose, like we all need purpose, and purpose I know is very important for us. Yeah, sure. Um okay, so physical environment, workspace, clutter, organization, lighting and noise. Yeah, like I when I talked about the peace index this morning with the class, and it's something I'm I'm still learning. Place is one of the five pieces. It's um it's it's people, so the top 10 favorite people in your life, um, provisions, and that's your like your earnings, purpose is another one. I forgot all five, but anyway, and one of them is place, and that's your spaces. It's your spaces in your home, at work, like where where are your places? And do those places bring you peace?

SPEAKER_00 9:09

Yeah, someone once told me they were like people that you see out every single night or all the time, like hanging out at the bars or clubs, and always out to eat, or always some anywhere but home. There's like they don't like their house. There's something there that they don't like, like seriously, it doesn't bring them peace, whatever it is. I know.

SPEAKER_01 9:27

I I I've learned it from my mom like my whole life, and my mom always said, make your home your sanctuary, like your sacred place. And she loves going home. And even when I'm there visiting, like I love just sitting there, and because because of her home, it brings me peace. And that's what she helped me build here is a peaceful home for you know, for Jordan and I. So you love coming home because you know it brings you peace. It's a game changer. It really is. And then and really, like what how do you everybody's peace looks different? You know, their homes look different. It's just it's what brings you peace. You know, what do you like? I know we we we want to go to bed and have a clean house.

SPEAKER_00 10:20

Nothing, no better feeling than when the dishes and everything are done. Yeah, yeah. When it what in your house has is your light safe, Aven? Like, is it the couch, is it the bed, your kitchen have to be certainly I I will say the couch and where I'm sitting right now.

SPEAKER_01 10:37

Oh, nice, like my office. It I mean it, you know, the podcasts are it's an emotional outlet for me. So doing this sort of work is brings me peace. Oh, it's peace and purpose. But here, or I'm just sitting on the couch doing nothing or watching TV.

SPEAKER_00 10:55

Nice. So what about you? Oh, mine's my bed. I actually just bought a new one because I felt like I wasn't comfortable. No, seriously, I I like a really high bed in the so sweet Rachel gets Wayfair things for free for some reason. I don't know how she got that, but she did. She she you get it, and then you just have to rate it and leave a review. And so somehow she got that and just had it for years. She goes, Hey, there's a bed on here. Do you want it? And I'm like, Yeah, because I was looking for a new bed frame. Yeah, and it's just I'm like, it's just too low to the ground. So I literally had to go buy another one. So I can't wait to put all brand new stuff and it just sink in and a hundred thousand pillows. Oh can't wait. Definitely my bed.

SPEAKER_01 11:36

Yeah, yeah. I mean, my bread, my bed brings me peace too. I don't know why I cut my bed out of there, but it brings me peace. The couch is your favorite, that's okay. Yeah, anywhere where I could sit, anywhere where there's a chair. Yeah, I was like, there's a trend here. Yeah, I mean, just you know, different seating areas, I'm good with. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, what's what's the next type of environment we're gonna talk about? Social environment. Oh, okay. You are who you hang with, right? So the people you spend time with, it's the social contagion. If your friends are all working out, you're gonna work out. If your friends are obese, you're probably gonna be obese. It's it's you are who you hang out with, your closest people. So here we have friends, coworkers, family, mentors, communities.

SPEAKER_00 12:32

What else on that one? Um, it just says that research shows behaviors spread socially. So basically, who you who you hang out with, you'll pick up some of their habits, basically. And that just brings me to like your social environment, and I guess for your own growth, how are they growing? What are they doing? You said before, if you're the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room. Um, and you know, I forget, I forget where I heard this from or learned it. It was some book, but it was saying, like, you know, you should not hang out with people who think the same as you, because you should be challenged by your friends at some point. You know, obviously you're gonna have like maybe the same moral compass, but if I'm wrong about something, I also want you to tell me that instead of just agreeing with everything I say, because there's no growth in that, you have to be challenged in some type of way.

SPEAKER_01 13:22

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, if if you're hanging out with people with negative behaviors, who you're probably gonna adopt negative behaviors if you're hanging out with people or your closest people, your inner circle has positive behaviors, then you'll adopt positive behaviors. But yeah, if you're a what's your color? It was orange-green, orange, then you might not want to hang out with everybody that's orange-green because you want different perspectives. Yeah, we talked about that when it came to and it's okay to be challenged, like we want to be challenged, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:01

It's the only way you can grow, really. We even talked about that, how it relates to relationships, and that usually an orange isn't dating an orange. If you are, well, I couldn't imagine. We'd be all be wild. Yeah, somebody has to be, somebody has to be even killed here. They say usually it's the opposite of your color because they're filling a void, or they have a strength that is your weakness. Two oranges would be in competition.

SPEAKER_01 14:24

Can you imagine that?

SPEAKER_00 14:26

We'd probably be fighting in the kitchen to rest one.

SPEAKER_01 14:29

I is Vanessa's an orange, I think. I believe it, and yeah, I'm like a blue, yeah, yeah. Oh my god, if we were both oranges, holy cow! Can't imagine it for fun though.

SPEAKER_00 14:43

Oranges are fun.

SPEAKER_01 14:44

Oh, I I know hey, yeah. So that's the social contagion theory. So if your close friends are a certain way, the chances of you um adopting those behaviors is probably 50-60 percent. So, an example, if your close friends become obese, your chances of becoming obese increase by 57%. Not because you're eating the same meals or you're genetically related, but because behaviors and norms spread through social networks. Same thing happens with positive behaviors. If your friends start exercising, you're gonna start exercising. If your friends are eating healthy, you're gonna eat healthy. If your friends are doing growth classes and building better habits, more than likely you're gonna build better habits. Very important to always reflect on your inner circle and who is in your is in your inner circle and what habits are they building. All right, next one. Yep. Um, digital environment.

SPEAKER_00 15:47

Oh god, where do we begin with this? I talked about it when I couldn't say amygdala last week, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:54

So there's so much. I don't social man social media and anxiety in teens. I was looking this up. Let's see. Uh, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania asked participants to limit social media use to just 30 minutes a day. After a few weeks, the participants reported significantly lower levels of loneliness and depression. Simply changing the digital environment changed how people felt. And I will tell you, like after doing some research on peace and the peace index and where we're at, I don't know currently what those statistics are, but but I know in the last three years, people's peace has decreased and sadness has increased. And why do we think that is? Cyberbully. Yeah, I I don't I don't know all of the I don't know all of the reasons, but one is probably a lot of scrolling and screen time. And because social media is really highlight reels, that's what it is. Facebook is highlight reels, it's not it's not really reality, and so people do a lot of comparing of their lives, and then before you know it, 80% of their day is behind a screen, and they're not socializing, there isn't human interaction, it's screen interaction, which isn't real. Um, so it it's interesting that the piece has gone down, sadness has gone up. Uh, a large study of adolescents in the UK found that teenagers who spent more than three hours a day on social media, which is very easy to do, by the way, had a significantly higher risk of mental health challenges, including anxiety and depressive systems.

SPEAKER_00 17:40

Yeah, I mean, it can be a negative space too. Like people are just kind of me. Because you can say whatever you want and not get punched in the face like old school, you know what I mean? So people just get on there and they cyberbully. And then, like you said, the lack of connection, which is also interesting to me because I was just watching a podcast on my way home from work today, and they it was during COVID, though, was when it was posted, and they're part of this pot some network. I think, I think it was real estate, and they were just excited to be on Zoom, and they were talking about at that time, they were talking about how it's nice to be able to still have some type of connection, even though we say, like, oh, this isn't real, but back when you have no connection, it becomes reality, and so they were just like, Oh, it's so nice that we at least have Zoom and it's and you know, we can still connect. It's like nothing connecting your person.

SPEAKER_01 18:31

Since Zoom has been, you know, introduced to us and how much it really has saved us, yeah. And in virtual, right? Like Zoom will never compare to in-person interaction, it will never compare to human interaction, yeah, but it does something better than no interaction, better than nothing, yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Um, so so with the social media and the highlight reels, that's called comparison culture. Social media presents highlight reels, not reality. Our brains compare our normal life to someone else's best moments, and it's a dopamine. And then people like to get their emojis, they like to get their likes, they like to get notification, and they scroll and they scroll and they get their dopamine hit and all those dopamine reward cycles. And it's just it then it becomes a habit. And the two hours becomes three hours, the three hours becomes five hours, and before you know it, your whole day you've been on social media and your habit is formed. Yeah, yeah, and it's and then to break that habit, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:36

And your brain processes repeated information as reality because your um here we go. Me and the brain, Kelly is clearly the neuroscience person. I mean, I know what it is, but I I have my own way of processing it. And I don't use right, this is not what I call it. I think they're I think it's technically the hippocampus, but that's not hippocampus' memory, yeah. But it stores everything, right? No matter what. Because it said crucial for transforming short-term, often subconscious sensory, yeah, input into long-term memories. Hippopotamus. So it's the hippopotamus or your brain, the hippocampus stores everything subconsciously, yeah. So when you're constantly seeing the short reels and and um the repeated information, it then becomes reality to your brain.

SPEAKER_01 20:26

Yeah, and then you just continue to do it because everything that you do throughout the day, like every reaction you have or every response is two things. And we've talked about it before the five senses and your history, what you've already done. So as those habits are formed, it they're gonna be tough to break because you're just this is your new habit and it it's the new normal. And we operate on default, what 50, 60 percent of our lives, of 50, 60 of our day is us in our default mode and just doing things out of habit. So it's gonna be tougher to then break that habit of scrolling.

SPEAKER_00 21:06

Yeah, and we're not saying don't scroll. You know, we already admitted we are looking at scrollers here. However, you can create your own digital environment just like you can your physical one, just like you can your social one. Your digital environment can be created, you can change your algorithms.

SPEAKER_01 21:23

Yep, you know, I was I was looking for my my timer here, my Pomodoro timer. That hey, limit your time on social media, y'all. If you know you get addicted, TikTok real quick, and look, it's your algorithm. So there are certain things I like watching on TikTok that really make me laugh. That's funny, uh, and entertaining. So just limit it. Just hey, 15 20 minutes on TikTok just to check out, you know, these five or six, whatever they're called, profiles, reels, reels, whatever.

SPEAKER_00 21:55

I'm saying profit games until you're belly laughing until 3 a.m. You gotta be up at five.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

You know, I mean oh, there's so many fun ones I love watching. Yeah, yeah. Nearly half of what we do every day isn't the result of a decision, it's the result of habits triggered by the environment. All right, what's the next one? So we had we had physical, social, digital, and emotional, emotional, an emotional environment.

SPEAKER_00 22:23

That's interesting.

SPEAKER_01 22:24

Yeah, this one is invisible, supportive environments, critical environments, fearful, and growth-oriented. So where we feel psychologically safe, which number one factor for high-performing teams, yes, have a psychologically safe environment. Yep. Which when you feel psychologically safe, then it opens an opportunity for growth and learning. You feel safe to speak up, you feel safe to learn, to grow.

SPEAKER_00 22:54

Yeah, because if you're walking, you go into work every day, feel like you're walking on eggshells. You're gonna be judged or micromanaged or whatever the case may be. I mean, that's psychological safety. That's no trust, no, you know, it that falls into more than one category, but you're not gonna get the most out of your employee if they're not psychologically safe. You're not gonna get the most out of your partner if they don't feel psychologically safe.

SPEAKER_01 23:22

So, what's the key to building a psychologically safe environment in your workplace? Um, I would say trust, autonomy, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 23:33

If I feel like I'm not gonna get in trouble because I made a mistake, then we use it as a learning opportunity instead, then I'm gonna grow from that. I'm, you know, I'm the same. If I did get in trouble, okay, I can fix it. But am I gonna take that risk again? Am I gonna be that creative? Am I gonna be that innovative? No, absolutely not, because I'm afraid to get in trouble. But if it's safe, if I feel safe and I feel like my manager or leader is using it as a learning moment, because that's really what it is. Um, then I'm more likely to one, still be careful, still fix it, learn from it, and still be innovative and creative.

SPEAKER_01 24:14

Have you in your career have you been in a psychologically safe environment?

SPEAKER_00 24:19

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 24:20

What made it psychologically safe?

SPEAKER_00 24:23

It was when you were my supervisor. What made it safe is that I knew it wasn't a good idea.

SPEAKER_01 24:28

I do believe, I do believe we were all in a psychologically safe environment. So I want to give our listeners some examples of of what that environment looks like and feels like. And if you were on the receiving end of it, then you would know.

SPEAKER_00 24:41

Yeah. So one of the things that I can vividly remember is that if we you trusted us to do the job, you sent us out there and said, here is what I need. However, you get there is up to you. Then micromanage, so there's that. You trusted us to do it, even when no one else did. And if we did mess up, and we were gonna get in trouble, not by you, but you uh you were gonna get in trouble. You were standing at attention with us in front of the commander. Hey, I let him do it, and here's why. And you had our back, so we felt safe and we wanted to work our behinds off because of that.

SPEAKER_01 25:21

Yeah, so so that first factor was building an environment of trust.

unknown 25:27

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 25:28

That I'm sure there were times I micromanaged, but for the most part, it was you guys do it. Like the sky is the limit sometimes in what we can do, and it all depends on on the career field and and the mission and everything. And and we happened to be in one at a time where we could take some risks and have some fun and still stay within, you know, left and right limits. And and it was giving you guys the autonomy to figure out how to do things, but when you look back on that, it was three, it was those three areas of intrinsic motivation. It was, I gave you guys a lot of autonomy. Yes, here's the desired end state. This is what I need you to do. You guys go do it. And I don't think you ever wanted to let me down, and I never wanted to let you guys down. We were we that that came from the trust that we had, that we were like a family, and then there was mastery because all we did was train, and we made it fun, yeah. Yeah, and we made it fun and we made it fun, but that's all we did was just train and train and train until we were the best at what we did, and then it was purpose that we knew our purpose everywhere we went. We all had that shared understanding and purpose of why we did what we did. And when we were in that environment as a family, as a unit, people can see people outside looking in can see the morale. It was very clear that we were very happy to be around each other. We had a lot of fun, we laughed a lot, and we just worked very, very hard. And when you look at, and I know you know we talk about it in one of our courses that you facilitate. We talk about boosting those natural chemicals, those feel-good chemicals. And I'm gonna go through them real quick and help me go through them too. But there's four. Um, and this is, I believe, one of the formulas for a healthy environment. The four chemicals, it's the DOS, you know, the acronym DOS. And the first one is dopamine. That's the motivation and reward chemical. We were always rewarding each other. And and when we weren't informally, we were doing it formally. We always were recognizing each other. So small achievable goals. We celebrated a lot, we celebrated progress, we learned, and then the next one, the O is the oxytocin. That's the connection and trust. That's probably what we had the most was connection. Yeah, we really were a family, we didn't want to hang on out with anybody else but each other. Yeah. And what was good was even the even our senior NCOs, when we went to a UTA, we knew that you were our our responsibility. That if people wanted to go to dinner, we were gonna take you all to dinner. Like it was it was that like everybody gonna eat this evening, and let's make sure everybody eats. That's how close we were. Acts of kindness, um, physical touch. Oh, we hugged a lot. We were huggers. Even though back then they were like, you're not supposed to be hugging each other. We were hugging. Oh, I still hug. I still hug. I do too. Um the S, so that was dopamine and oxytocin, and the serotonin is the status and well-being chemical. This is confidence, feelings of significance, exercise, reflecting on accomplish accomplishments, gratitude, practices, and feeling respected and valued. The V word, everybody wants to feel valued. They want to be a valued member of an organization, of a team. And I believe we did that.

SPEAKER_00 29:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:18

And then the E is endorphins, and that's the exercise, that's the music, that's the laughter. You know, in the beginning of our in the beginning of our chief course, we ask people what their what their walk-up song is, what their theme song. I love that. That's and at first they kind of look at us like, what are you doing? I'm like, trust me, there's a reason. And um, and then we we build a playlist because when you set the environment, the environment is many things. And one thing it is it's music, and people love music. And I remember the first time I was at Homestead and I had an enlisted call or an Aaron's call, and that was one of the first things I did, and it was virtual. And I asked them to build the Spotify playlist, and they typed all their songs in a chat, and then I had a playlist to listen to on the drive home. And I mean, they were all excited about it. Like, cool. I mean, you learn, you connect with people through the music that they listen to. So it's music, they have in here dancing, and we did dance at times, and then laughter and exercise. So it's the dose, D O S C or yeah, D-O-S-E. That is one of the formulas for the environment. When you can build that formula and make that formula work for your environment, people will be in a psychologically safe environment and people will want to learn and grow, and there will be trust. When you don't have that in the environment, what happens? Well, they go to the cheap chemicals, the the cheap dopamine and the scrolling, and maybe back to some bad habits. So it's very important as leaders to set that environment. And there's so many different ways you can set that environment. It's people need to be in an environment to thrive and grow. And we compare it to fish in a tank, right? Remember that? Like, yeah, yeah. What do fish need? They need clean water, yeah. They need they need to be fed, they need other fish of certain species that they can can connect with. And what happens when the water gets toxic? You clean that freaking water, yeah, right? It's it's taking care of the environment so people can thrive.

SPEAKER_00 31:34

Yes, I like that you said um purpose because I left that out, but when I was talking about it, but I do remember that because we had what we considered bottom of the barrel type of job. It felt like it, it was not, it's very important, very important. I know oh, us, yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:53

I mean, you don't have to be very smart to be in our career field.

SPEAKER_00 31:57

But but when you say purpose, I do remember learning that from right pattern at a very young age because I remember going to other bases and I had to, I was surprised at the amount of members that didn't know what our purpose was and why our job was so important. They had this negative thought process about our job, and I just remember bringing that information with me. Purpose is important. We need to know why we're here and why we're doing this.

SPEAKER_01 32:24

Yeah. Um, yeah, it and uh purpose is everything. What we did was we took a what did you say, bottom of the barrel career field? Yeah. We but look at what we did with it.

SPEAKER_00 32:38

Yeah, we made it fun.

SPEAKER_01 32:40

We made it fun, we were very proud, and people saw it, and then they wanted to be in the career field.

SPEAKER_00 32:46

Yep, they did.

SPEAKER_01 32:47

That's and we were legacy, guys.

SPEAKER_00 32:49

I want you to know that we were such a family that we fought like brothers or sisters. I mean, Gerald got into a flower fight. We were throwing flour at each other because we were mad about something, then apologized and cleaned it up. Like we were literally family, we fought like it too.

SPEAKER_01 33:09

Yeah, yeah, and and we won a lot. Yes, we won a lot because we worked very hard. That environment. Yeah, we worked very hard for each other. Okay, all right, those were the four environments. What do we got next? Let's take the detour.

SPEAKER_00 33:24

Take the detour.

SPEAKER_01 33:26

Okay, so Tara and I are building a fantasy growth environment draft. So we each have a copy of different players or different environments. So, for example, there's physical environment, and there's six options under physical environment that we can choose. There's social environment, there's six under that. There's digital, emotional, and then there's also personal growth. So we're gonna pick probably two from each and build build our ultimate growth environment. So it's kind of like a fantasy football draft, but we're drafting our favorites to build like the ultimate growth environment for us. Do you want to go first? Start with physical environment. So just for the listeners, some examples under physical are a phone-free morning routine, books visible in your living space, workout gear ready to go, a clean, organized workspace, healthy food visible and easy to grab, and a dedicated, quiet thinking space.

SPEAKER_00 34:34

Okay, for physical environments. I want to say okay, I'm gonna go with healthy food, visible, and easy to grab. That's the one I was gonna pick.

SPEAKER_01 34:45

Oh that's a good one. It is all right. That's yours. Um I'm going to go with a dedicated quiet thinking space.

SPEAKER_00 34:56

That's good.

SPEAKER_01 34:58

One more for you under that one. Oh okay, and workout gear ready to go. Okay, that was gonna be my second choice. It's so funny. I don't want to go with a phone frame. Me either, so don't take that one. You're avoiding it. Okay, so this is our draft. A clean organized workspace.

SPEAKER_00 35:21

Okay, that's good.

SPEAKER_01 35:22

And my workspace at work is not clean and organized, so I think both home and there, probably more so home, because I do a lot of work at home too. So a clean, organized workspace. It's so funny that we did not pick a phone-free morning routine.

SPEAKER_00 35:38

That just can't be in my draft.

SPEAKER_01 35:40

It can't, it can't, it can't be in my draft. Okay, we're gonna leave that there. All right, so social environment for the listeners. We have friends who are working toward goals, a mentor who challenges you, accountability partners, people who normalize growth and learning, being around disciplined people, a group that values honesty and feedback. Wow, that's interesting.

SPEAKER_00 36:06

Yeah. Am I first do you? Go ahead. Okay. Obviously, people who normalize growth and learning. Hmm. We wouldn't be doing this if that wasn't the case.

SPEAKER_01 36:18

Um, I'm gonna go with friends who are working toward goals. Oh, are you writing this down?

SPEAKER_00 36:23

So I don't have to, huh?

SPEAKER_01 36:25

I'm writing down mine.

SPEAKER_00 36:26

No, I was writing, I was writing all of that. Okay. Um hard. Um, okay. Can I say a coach who challenges you? I don't have a mentor.

SPEAKER_01 36:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:38

Coach that challenges you.

SPEAKER_01 36:39

I was not gonna pick that one, and I think it's funny that we were gonna stay away from that one too. A mentor who challenges you.

SPEAKER_00 36:46

Just change it, it's our draft.

SPEAKER_01 36:47

Yeah, all right. So you got a coach. Why am I having a hard time with accountability partner?

SPEAKER_00 36:54

Well, okay, a group that the that last one is.

SPEAKER_01 36:57

All right, now I'm gonna go with accountability partner because I'm trying to stay away from a group that values honesty and feedback. I value honesty, but sometimes feedback is like it's too much sometimes, just too much.

SPEAKER_00 37:10

Damn it, uh, sometimes you don't ask for it.

SPEAKER_01 37:12

Yeah, like in moderation, please, folks. Accountability partners.

SPEAKER_00 37:18

All right, digital environment.

unknown 37:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:21

This one we have go ahead. This one we have notifications turned off, social media limits, podcasts or audiobooks during commutes, growth focused content in your feed, removing distracting apps, scheduling time blocks under okay, you go first. This is really funny.

SPEAKER_01 37:39

Oh, definitely 15 podcasts or audiobooks during commutes, um, specifically podcasts, like trail, like trail talks, like trail talks.

SPEAKER_00 37:50

What you got? Um I'm gonna go scheduling time blocks under calculations.

SPEAKER_01 37:54

Oh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:55

I figured we need that one. Yeah, such a good one. This is so funny. I know exactly which ones are spear included. I know. I'm gonna go with growth focused content in my feed. Oh, okay. Well, I'm going with notifications turned off. I'm reviewing turn off social media.

SPEAKER_01 38:15

Yeah, I I would have done that too, but um okay, so we are leaving on the table social media limits and removing distracting apps.

SPEAKER_00 38:26

Yeah, absolutely not. Do they want us to be to grow or be miserable? Like let's be real. So for this one, there's one, two, three, four, five. So maybe two each on this one or one each on this one, yeah. Emotional environment. Yeah, right. For the emotional environment, we have people who celebrate effort, not just success, psychological safety to try and fail, a culture of encouragement, leaders who model vulnerability, friends who tell the truth. Hmm. Am I going? Yeah. A culture of encouragement. I knew I was looking at that line. I'm gonna go with the psychological safety to try and fail.

SPEAKER_01 39:02

Yeah, good. Okay, we're leaving on the table, not by choice. I mean, we were only picking, uh I would have picked all of these though. People who celebrate effort, leaders who model vulnerability, that would have been my next one, and then friends who tell you the truth. I don't need people to tell me the truth all the time, though.

SPEAKER_00 39:20

You do we can't sugarcoat everything all the time. In moderation. We're self-aware, I think you'll be alright. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:30

All right, personal growth. What do we have under personal growth?

SPEAKER_00 39:33

A journal for reflection, a weekly review habit, clear written goals, a vision board or visual reminders, learning environments, coaching or mentorship, and a habit tracker. They're all good. All right, you want to go first? Yes.

SPEAKER_01 39:48

I'm gonna have to go clear written goals. Good. I'm gonna do learning environments, courses, and books. One more each. Yeah. Coaching, Kelly Michelle coaching specifically. Um, I'm gonna do a vision board. Ooh. I love the vision board. I love pictures. So what we're leaving on the table, a journal. I'm not doing that. I'm not doing it either.

SPEAKER_00 40:14

I'll be like 30 days of gratitude to write something down each day, but not a journal.

SPEAKER_01 40:18

A journal for reflection, a weekly review habit, and a habit tracker. So I guess we're just not into like the trackers. Yeah. Yeah. Agree. All right, what what is your what does your team look like?

SPEAKER_00 40:35

Well, I wrote down yours too, so now I gotta remember what I picked.

SPEAKER_01 40:38

Oh, I'll go, I'll go with mine and then you can cross them out. All right, go ahead. So, my top environment, and we can post these when we post the episode. Uh, dedicated, quiet thinking space, clean, organized workspace. My coworkers would probably laugh at that. Friends working toward goals, accountability partners, podcasts, growth-focused content in my feed, culture of encouragement, and a learning environment. So courses and books, and a vision board. I think that's pretty good.

SPEAKER_00 41:15

We'd have one hello eating if we put it together, huh?

SPEAKER_01 41:18

Yeah, if we were to take this a step further, I would probably trade you one or two, but okay. I don't even want to be in a draft with you or anyone in your family.

SPEAKER_00 41:27

All right, go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 41:29

What is your ultimate growth environment look like?

SPEAKER_00 41:32

All right. Um, it's healthy food, visible, and easy to grab, workout gear, ready to go. Um oh gosh, where we go. Oh, people who normalize growth and learning. Yeah. And a coach who challenges you. And then I have scheduling time blocks on your calendar, notifications turned off, psychological safety, clear goals, and coaching. Oh, great team.

SPEAKER_01 42:01

Yeah. That was fun. Hey, y'all, we all we did was put that in chat GPT, and um and it gave us a bunch of examples, so it was a fun little thing. So you can do that too. No, it was fine. All right, uh, we hopping back on. Yeah, let's hop back on the true.

SPEAKER_00 42:19

All right, tool time. Is that a new thing?

SPEAKER_01 42:24

Tool time. All right, we we already gave um so we already gave some of the tools, which one of them is the dose. I do want to say the dose, and I don't I don't have the name of the creator of the dose, but we'll we'll make sure we put it in the notes. So the to to naturally boost those chemicals through the environment, the dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins. That is laughter, it's recognition, it's connection, it's movement, all of those actions that would create a psychologically safe, healthy environment. What else did we give? I don't know. Where are the tools?

SPEAKER_00 43:03

Did I give the tools? Well, one of them, one of them that we kind of just did um on our detour is an environment audit. Oh, yeah. So you kind of pick out if you would get on chat GVT, like like we were saying, you can kind of pick out what you want your environment to look like. That way you can make changes within it. So the environment audit, ask yourself three questions. Who influences my thinking the most? What environments energize me? What environments drain me? Call environmental awareness.

SPEAKER_01 43:34

Yep, environment audit. Awesome. Three questions. Uh, another tool is change one environment instead of trying to change everything. Just change one. So it could be joining a gym if you currently don't belong to a gym and you want to build that healthy habit. Uh join a growth community, change morning routine, which could be. No social media, no phone, limit social media, even getting up to to exercise earlier in the morning. So change your morning routine, uh, rearrange workspace. I already said limit social media. So small environmental changes can create large behavioral shifts.

SPEAKER_00 44:20

I think that's fine.

SPEAKER_01 44:22

Yeah. That's good. So we went through the dose, the environment audit, the three questions, who influences my thinking the most, what environments energize me, what what drains me? Change one environment, just small changes. And then also think about things that bring you joy. Think about things that bring you peace. What kind of books do you like to read? What kind of movies do you watch? What kind of music do you listen to that that brings you energy? Right?

unknown 44:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:58

Are there certain songs that bring you energy? Just think about all the things that you like in your life that bring you joy, bring you peace, and set your environment like that. Are we good? All right, listeners. Thanks for joining us on the trail. Until next time, keep growing and keep going. And we'll see you next time. Before we wrap up, if today's conversation resonated with you, you don't have to walk your journey alone. I offer emotional intelligence assessments with personalized coaching, one on one mindset coaching, and leadership development for teams and organizations. You can explore all of that at Kellymichelle Coaching.com, linked in the show notes. And I'll leave you with this awareness is powerful, but support is transformational.