In order to thrive you must master your environment. Sometimes it’s external and sometimes it’s internal. What makes the Navy Seals an unstoppable highly effective force is their ability to establish themselves in any terrain. This skill is embedded within their title. SEAL stands for Sea, Air and Land.
Your ability to thrive in life will require you to accept the nature of your circumstances. You must rise above or make them conform to your will. In the words of George Bernard Shaw: “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
Lucy Hoger, international bestselling author and speaker, wrote in “Wired for Results” that Charles Darwin was misrepresented in the philosophy survival of the fittest. Hoger says that Darwin did not conclude that it was the fastest, strongest, oldest, or smartest. Darwin proposed that it was the most adaptable. It turns out that in other studies that the secret to centuries of thriving came down to the ability to learn faster. Are you starting to detect a theme?
Are you dissatisfied with your body shape? Is your bank statement bottom line constantly fluctuating outside a stable baseline? Do you find co-workers are not pulling their weight? Does it seem like the economy or demographics are making it hard for you to expand? Well, the Stoics would say this when it comes to people and circumstances: you are just an appearance and by no means what you appear to be. I know this is easier said than lived. Look at it this way, if someone else is thriving under the same climate as you, then the premise of your pain might be flawed. Maybe it’s time to abolish the rule stating why you can’t progress? Are you going to hold yourself back by an appearance that might just be temporary?
What makes humans unique in the animal kingdom funnels down to a few powerful facts. Here’s the one we will give focus to: animals have to accept their environment whereas humans can design theirs. Enough said but I will expand anyway. Your freedom lies in the mental faculty of imagination. You can see your life as you would have it. You don’t have to settle or blame. All you have to do is begin by thinking higher than appearances. Create a vision and convert it to daily practices. Let the practices become rituals aka habits. Let the rituals reshape your destiny.
In conclusion, there is a choice to be made. You can live your life in conflict with your surrounds. Or, you can see the possibility, adapt and advance beyond your surrounds. Many have turned their lives around with less. And nobody has done it without envisioning more. The key to master your environment is to think higher than it.