Environment Builds the Brain — On Standing Somewhere Slightly Higher

Do not over-trust willpower. Behavioral science repeatedly shows that human behavior is shaped less by individual resolve than by surrounding environments and relationships.

Famous research reported that obesity, smoking, even happiness tend to spread through social ties; the standards around you quietly rewrite your "normal" — income, learning, appetite for challenge, all pulled toward the average of those you keep company with.

One executive's essay is a living specimen: thrown among the prefecture's best as a freshman, he hyperventilated, clung on, and in six months owned a different body; at twenty-five, another stepped among adults who worked with joy, and his life began to change. Neither had superior will — the environment did the will's work for them.

To change yourself, don't resolve; relocate. Throw yourself where you must stand on tiptoe. Environment is the strongest form of will.

What do you work for?