Your environment shapes your life in ways you can never imagine. It defines your thought-process and influences what you conceive as possible.
There are five environments that are critical.
1. The Physical. Understand when you outgrow a place and a space. Places expire when it no longer inspires. You may never know the best version of yourself till you physically remove yourself from certain places. Where your roots are planted, is where your shoots will grow. If I had stayed back as a Lecturer in Nigeria, I am not sure I would be the leading a team of "oyibo" people, bagged a PhD and a PR or even conceived that I would teach and grade oyibo students for three years straight.
2. The Mental. Life's battlefield plays out in your mind. It is almost impossible to achieve what your mind doesn't conceive. You cannot desire to be 'big' and think small. You want to land a job in a Fortune 100 company but your mind is conditioned to think minimum wage. You desire to stay in the UK, but you have resigned your fate to Tier 4 visa without even trying for Tier 2. When you allow your mind think right, it would bring light that brightens the path of actualization. Emancipation is of the mind.
3. The Emotional. Guard your heart jealously. Not every situation requires your emotional reaction. Protect your emotional space and who you admit. Tend and safeguard its sanctity. Not everyone deserves to have unfettered access to your life. Life serves everyone "breakfast" from time to time. If you guard your heart, you will serve lunch and dinner.
4. The Social. You cannot do life alone. You need the right people in the corner and on your social media feed. Your network is your networth. It is from my Facebook environment, that I got all the information for Canada PR, career tips, book tags and life hacks. I will forever be grateful to a Professor whose presence in my life opened the doors for what I am enjoying today. Normalize mentorship in your social space.
5. Spiritual/Religious. I have an hypothesis that every country on earth has its own unique spiritual forcefield. There are so things you would need prayer and fasting for to secure in Nigeria but only need to say the "Lord's prayer" to get in another country. Besides countries, every person has spiritual energies that can affect those around them.
It goes without saying that "who you follow determines what follows you". Likewise, this can be appropriated as "where you go, determines what goes with you". Not every place invites your presence.
If you think, you will become.
Uproot yourself.
