Your environment is either adding to or taking away from your success.

When I think back to those that I coach one of the biggest challenges I face as a coach and the students face and most are not even aware of is just how important your environment is to your success. This is something I think about all the time.  It's something I always experiment with and reflect on in my own life as well 

See as entrepreneurs most of us start off working from home, in a spare room out of the garage, sometimes in a deep dark corner of the basement! Why? So we can keep expenses low. And this is great however most of us are not in the most ideal environments working from home. Often times there are too many distractions, too many interruptions to many temptations. Temptations to sleep in, sensations of feeling lazy, your environment at home may not be the most inspirational, you may look around the house and get sidetracked or overwhelmed with all the chores and things to do, you may live in an area where you can hear your neighbors screaming at each other, you may have the dog barking nonstop or kids at home all of these are distractions or better yet interruptions that stifle your success dramatically. See every time we get interrupted by the slightest thing it takes 15-20 minutes just to get back into the thought pattern where you left off and most of the time you are getting interrupted in between those 15-20 minutes so you can never really focus or gain any traction. 

Most people also miss how vital it is to be in an environment that supports success, to be in a collaborative environment and around others.  To be in an environment that inspires you and empowers you to be creative and live with passion. 

What I've noticed over the years is that there is no one answer to the correct environment you have to design the perfect environment that works for you and put that plan in place. Every single person is completely different that one person can work from home and excel wonderfully and another simply cannot. Below are some tips and ideas that may help some of you in creating a distraction-free environment that supports success weather from home or out of home. 

Before we get into those tips,  let me first share this idea. 

First Step: Take a moment and brainstorm if money was no object and you had complete freedom to do whatever you wanted. What would the perfect environment look like? Where would you be working from? What would your office look like? How would it be designed? What systems would be in place? Where would you be? Visualize in your mind , jump forward in time what would the perfect working environment for you be? Look like? Feel like? Smell like! Take a moment now to write it all down. 

The goal is to design the perfect environment then work backwards to put a plan in place to create this for yourself now. Let's assume for a moment that this plan may cost you $5-10k a month to put into place. You are thinking to yourself how the heck could I ever afford that now. Well, consider this by being in the perfect environment where you are inspired, full of passion full of energy, full of creativity and drive, distraction-free each day. Really think back to a time you were like this, a time when you are on fire! The moon and stars aligned and you felt unstoppable. How was your performance that day? Did you blow your results out of the water? Did you do 2,3,4,10x the amount of work and business you normally do? Come on we've all had days like that think back to a day like that for you. Now imagine if you could have every day like that. The answer is you can. By putting yourself in the ideal environment you will be more focused more efficient more inspired and accomplish more than you ever dreamed possible. Making the cost of the environment insignificant because you are now producing 10x more!

Consider what not being in the proper environment is costing you. If you can truly focus free up an extra 2-3 hours a  day of hardcore uninterrupted focus how much more business could you do in those 2-3 hours a day or if 6 days a week 18 hours a week! Do you think in an extra 18 hours a week intently focused, inspired and empowered that you could do enough business to cover the cost of the environment plus some!? You absolutely can. 

By working from home I may only be able to peak out at say $100k a year because I am more relaxed, not as inspired or driven and there are a ton of distractions. But out of the home, I may be able to produce $700k-1M+ per year because I am now in an environment that supports massive success. 

Here are some general thoughts in no particular order that come to mind when trying to create an environment that supports success

General Ideas:

Distraction-free is key! You must eliminate all distractions. Your workspace must be void of any to-dos anything that does not bring you joy. Turn phones off , ringers off etc. You must create a work environment that eliminates all the distractions. For example, if there is a to-do list anywhere in this environment your mind will never let it go even if it's behind you on a table. If you are working from home you may be thinking about all the projects that have to get done. Create a space that distances yourself from this, close it out and escape and fully immerse yourself in a space that supports work and focus. You must take a moment now and look for and eliminate all distractions in your space. 

If you have family and you are working from home or have a home office consider using something you can hang on the door or for me I use a color-changing light LED from Amazon I can for example set to Red, Blue, Green that when the Red light is on do not open the door I'm in zero distraction mode. When the blue light is on use caution, when great light is on its open-door time. This works well in an office environment as well. Establish an open door and closed-door time. Both from home and office. Times when family or staff can come in freely and times when they cannot 

Make sure you are in an area that is full of light and good energy. Sometimes we get stuck in environments or offices that are dark, depressing etc. Having a space that has lots of natural light, fresh air goes a long way in terms of mood

If you are working from home and have pets that may be a distraction consider a pet daycare. The barking of a dog in the background while making prospecting calls or if the mail person comes to the door is a mood and focus killer. Can't afford the cost? Consider what it's costing you in terms of income not to. 

If you have children at home consider the same thing a babysitter or daycare even if just for 3-4 hours a day. Can't afford the cost? Consider what it's costing you not to! 

Make sure your workspace in inspiring, fill it with things that bring you joy and inspire you. Make it a calm space. Look around your workspace now if there is anything that doesn't bring you joy, peace or calm get rid of it or move it out now 

Your workspace should be clutter-free. Clutter creates stress. Keep it organized, cleaned

Consider looking into feng shui elements in your workspace. Energy and placement of things play a big role in success and good energy flowing through. Design a space that works well with your energy. You may have things now that are blocking abundance vs allowing it to flow.

 Noise is a big one for me but some people have no problem with it. The slightest sound throws me off. At the office and even at home I have gone as far is soundproofing the walls and doors. You may not need to go that extreme you can also try noise-canceling headphones or earplugs. 

Being around others is a big part of expanding success and creativity. Sometimes if we are working from home we can get to is located. Some of the best ideas on earth have come standing around the coffee pot or at lunch with someone or in a casual conversation. Those that work from home may be missing out on a key element here and that's collaboration, conversations daily with others . Consider getting an office, a co-workspace or at the very least putting together a group of like-minded people and checking in with each other each day by phone or an online meeting like google hangout or zoom. Surrounding yourself with people on the same mission, you can feed off each other's energy, ideas, accountability. I remember back to my days as  a real estate agent I can tell you first hand I am very grateful I started in a high energy environment with a group of others in an office all focused and working from the same schedule, role-playing each day, ringing bells for appointments set, high fiving when a listing was taken, daily team meetings, we could all see the sales board and who was doing what. This played a critical role in my success and motivation each day and was the pure difference of me selling 4 houses a year to selling 100 houses a year it made that much of an impact. If the environment that you desire does not exist or you cannot find it create one. Create one that supports collaboration, teamwork etc. 

Do you have the tools for success? Sometimes people are lacking the proper tools for success even things as simple as a laptop, or printer, scanner, software etc and are wasting so much time running around town or to FedEx to print things off or working from a mobile phone because they don't have a laptop or can't afford yet the proper software. Consider how much this is slowing you down. I get it you “don't have the money” find a way to borrow it from a friend, family , credit , sell some stuff laying around, cut a lawn or two do whatever. These low ticket items can save you hours in leg work and efficiency you will be able to now produce 10x more and pay whatever you borrowed back before you know it 

Who are you hanging out with? Friends? Family? Co-workers. Are the discussions in alignment with your focus and goals or are they bringing you down? You are the sum total of the top 5 people you spend the most amount of time with. Want to change your success? Change whom you spend the most time with. If you are in a personal or work environment that is bringing you down, you need to change it now. Want to make $100k a year? Hang out with people making $100k a year the discussions are $100k a year discussions and your energy will naturally be brought to that level. 

Co-working space like a we work is a good much cheaper in between then going right into a full-blown office environment consider starting there and moving in stages

 Keep your goals on a whiteboard in front of you assign to them the cost and time it's going to take. For me, I bought a digital photo frame from amazon and have pictures display and rotate on the frame of my personal and business goals to inspire me each day so there is a visual and emotional connect. It's also important that you have them written out and literally right in front of you each day for me they are on a whiteboard. My personal, Travel and business goals.

I can tell you first hand from my own experience and now having coached thousands of people that the number one thing most people don't pay any attention to is how critical the right environment is. You have to create and work from an environment that supports success and if that currently does not exist for you, if your current environment is full of distractions, people or things that do not bring you joy you need to change it right now. Replace it with the opposite even it cost you money that you say “I don't have” by changing to an environment that supports success the money will come to support it, You will free up time, be more inspired and accomplish way more. Like my coach told you “you can't afford not to” Whatever your ideal environment is go out, create it and start living it and start creating more success and abundance. 

For those who want to learn more about creating the ideal environment and working from the ideal daily schedule and solid systems to scale, and create predictability in your business and consistency. Then consider joining me in The Ultimate Real Estate Investing Course (™) and coaching it starts with a free strategy call at webinar.theuric.com or get a free investor case study and webinar at 28.theuric.com

-Dylan