While browsing through a furniture store this weekend, I saw a Winston Churchill quote on the wall that said “we shape our dwellings, and afterward, our dwellings shape us.”
In his New York Times Best Seller, Atomic Habits, James Clear reaffirms as much, writing that “… motivation (and even talent) is often overrated. In many cases, environment matters more.”
The same sage wisdom, decades apart: the secret to better outcomes isn’t more willpower, it’s learning the art of manipulating your environment so that it’s easier for you to perform the behaviors you want to do and harder for you to perform the behaviors you want to avoid.