Have you noticed there are places in your life where certain things happen predictably? In these places, things happen almost as if on auto-pilot, without the need to create a plan or work at it. Like it or not, you can have confidence those things will happen in those places.

(Bear with me while I illustrate a point. This may seem obvious for a moment…then you’ll see an opportunity.)

1. Bedrooms are where we sleep.
2. Living rooms are where we watch tv or entertain.
3. Kitchens are where we prepare food.

These things happen in these locations because these locations have been intentionally arranged to create optimal circumstances for those activities.

1. The bedroom, not coincidentally, has a bed, alarm clock, light controls, maybe blackout shades.
2. The living room has seating and entertainment options.
3. The kitchen has food storage, equipment, water, heat sources, tools.

Consider the alternative

Have you tried to sleep, be entertained, and prepare food in environments not designed for those activities?

• Can you imagine trying to sleep someplace with the light on all the time (like in a hotel room with a bright light just outside)? Have you ever had difficulty sleeping in a strange bedroom or environment (like in a hotel room with busy train tracks just outside)?
• Can you imagine a group watching tv in your kitchen? …or playing a board game on your cramped kitchen counter?
• Have you ever cooked while camping? …or in a motel room?

Humans are not particularly planful

However, in most of our lives, those things are often done by default:

• When we move into a home, we put the bed in the bedroom, the entertainment equipment in the living room, and the food and cooking supplies in the kitchen.
• Thankfully, architects design these spaces to make it pretty straightforward to choose what goes where.
• After that, we mostly just do what we do.

In general, humans go with the flow.

In general, humans are not particularly detailed in their assessment, analysis, and strategic intervention in the systems of their lives.

However, the places we spend our time can have a profound effect on our behavior.

Results you produce are most highly correlated with your behavior.

• Have you ever thought carefully about how the places you spend your time affect your behavior?
• Have you considered how your behavior in those places impacts your ability to get the results you want?

As you intend to manage change in some are of your life or business, it pays to consider how places impact that area.

Now is an opportunity to carefully consider the places you spend your time, to consider how you can impact those places to:

1. support you in making choices and taking actions that better support you achieving your goals,
2. create a plan to impact the places where you spend your time, then
3. take action to modify those places accordingly.

Practice: Create a Plan for your places

Step 1

List the places you spend time or anticipate spending time.

• Perform an analysis of your physical environment(s), and create a plan to operate in each one. This is your environments analysis tool.
  • List all the places you spend your time.
  • Consider where these help and support you in your Purpose.
  • Consider where these threaten or cause you to act in a way that threatens you achieving your goal.
  • Send me a copy.
• Add your Purpose as the next column on your list of values (on your list of people/groups/organizations — your influences analysis tool)
  • Rate how each member of your social environment supports or hinders you achieving your purpose (just as you rated how each is reflective of your values).
• Add each of your physical environments to the bottom of your list of people/groups/organizations (influences analysis tool)
  • Rate each of your physical environments as to its fit with each of your values, and with your purpose.
  • Send me a copy.

“Humans can think about and anticipate things before they happen, which can help us prepare for and even prevent certain events.”

–Jinshil Hyun

Step 2

Create a plan for how you’ll arrange each of these places or act while in these places so your intentions are best served.

Step 3

At the extreme, create a plan to not spend time in places that do not serve or work against your intention.

Step 4

At the other extreme, create a plan to spend time in new places that will serve or work in favor of your intention.

Review 

You:

• planned success into every place in your life.
• identified risks to meeting your intention.
• created plans to mitigate risks to your intention.
• improved your chances of reaching your goal.
• can be confident, anywhere you go, that you have a plan of action to support you achieving your goal.

Reflect

Answer these questions in writing, and put the result in your PowerBoard.

• What was most useful for you here?
• What one idea can you put to use immediately?

Results

You have plans for every place in your life, and you have one or more new ideas and techniques you can put to use immediately.

Congratulations!

I’m proud of you for doing what many people don’t. You’ve declared a plan and taken meaningful action to deliver on your intention.

Congratulate yourself!

Have confidence!

• You are taking meaningful action to plan your results, and you are taking action to work your plan.
• As you work your plan, you will increasingly see results that support your intentions.

Next: Make it happen! (Manage Change)

 

Resources

• Influences analysis tool
• Environments analysis tool

More information

• Quote from Jinshil Hyun is from this article.
• How to make healthy eating unbelievably easy | Luke Durward | TEDxYorkU
• Questions for reflection inspired by The Coaching Habit, by Michael Bungay Stanier

Photo Credits

• Train passengers: Photo by Braden Barwich on Unsplash
• Create: Photo by Lum3n.com from Pexels
• YEAH!!: Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash
• Begin on a coffee cup full of coffee: Photo by Danielle MacInnes on Unsplash. Link.