Design Your Environment To Become Who You Want To Become

In 6th grade I joined the school band, and picked up a trumpet. In my initial lessons with my music teacher, he told me to make sure I keep my trumpet out of my case. He said I would end up practicing way more if I could just just walk by my trumpet, pick it up for 3 minutes, and mess around. He said if I leave my trumpet in my case, it’ll take 30 seconds to take it out and set it up, and that’s just enough resistance to keep me from practicing. 

I didn’t end up taking his advice with the trumpet, but I did discover this to be true for myself with my drum set. In 8th grade, I got a a drum set, and there was no case for that. It was always set up. I would walk by the drums, mess around for 5 minutes, and then move on with my day. But over time, those 5-minute sessions started to add up, and I became much more fluent in drum playing than in trumpet playing. 

I’m in the process of moving to a new apartment. All of my guitars are in their cases because I haven’t drilled in their wall mounts yet. Guess how much time I’ve spent playing guitar the past few weeks? Basically none. 

The point here is to remind you that our environments have a strong effect on what we end up doing with our time. What we do with our time has an effect on who we become. Design your environment to become the kind of person you want to become. Many new hobbies and creative practices gain traction when they are an automatic addition to our lives. Want to paint more? Keep your canvas out. Want to take more photos? Carry your camera with you. Want to play more trumpet? Keep it out of its case.