The Environment Always Wins

You can’t stop the environment from changing you. But you can choose which environment you let change you.

Every environment you step into is shaping you. Quietly, consistently, and often without asking permission. Some fill you with energy and possibility. Others drain your confidence and clarity. But one thing never changes: the environment always wins.

When I joined the Marine Corps, I thought I knew what discipline was. I didn’t.

Boot camp is designed to transform you. It strips away comfort, predictability, and ego until all that is left is raw potential. You can resist it, question it, even laugh at it, but you can’t escape it. The environment changes you.

That experience taught me something I’ve never forgotten. You don’t grow because you want to. You grow because the environment requires it.

Years later, I watched that same truth unfold through my daughter, Aspen. She is the same person she was a year ago, same DNA, same drive. But this year, she is thriving. She is surrounded by people who challenge, support, and bring out her best. Last year, she was in a place that didn’t fit.

Same human. Different environment. Completely different outcome.

It reminded me how much the environment influences who we become. Not just our habits, but our sense of identity, our energy, and the story we tell ourselves about what is possible.

If you want to become the person your future self would be proud of, start by examining where you spend your time and who you spend it with.

Are you surrounded by growth or by comfort?
By honesty or by approval?
By people who see your potential or people who keep you the same?

Change doesn’t begin with more effort. It begins with better soil.

Because you can’t avoid being shaped by your surroundings.
But you can choose to be shaped into someone you are proud to meet ten years from now.

👉 Join the Virtual 10 Year Letter Workshop.
Design a life you’re excited to wake up to.