Learning From Drug Addicts

Welcome to the Anturas newsletter, where I provide actionable ideas to help you think, learn, and grow. If you enjoy it, please feel free to forward along to friends. Quote of the Week: "Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected." - Steve Jobs Content of the Week: How important is our environment? Well it turns out, your environment might be more important than you think. It's been shown that individuals who are addicted to drugs can experience reduced and even no withdrawal syndromes when they stop using and are immediately transferred to a new environment, like a rehab facility. The craziest part, when the individual is reintroduced back to their old environment, even months or years after use, they can begin to experience withdrawal symptoms. How is this even possible?

There's a phenomenon called "environmental dependency syndrome," which is when a visual cue or object compels you to take a certain action. Our brain is naturally programmed to associate certain environmental cues with actions, so when drug addicts are surrounded by "bad" environmental cues it can lead to withdrawal symptoms / a relapse.

What does this extreme example teach us? It shows us that sometimes the best way to change is to create a new environment. Whether that's surrounding ourselves with different people, optimizing our workspace, or physically moving locations. A change in your environment might be all you need to get to the next level. Big Question(s) of the Week: What is a small tweak you can make to your environment to increase your happiness or get you closer to your goals? Client Success of the Week: "When we first started working together I had a really difficult time separating work from my personal life. I work from home and there's a three-hour time difference between me and my colleagues. This lead me to work as soon as I woke up so I could 'get ahead' and then work late into the evening because my colleagues were still working. I was at my breaking point… I didn’t realize how much of an impact just making small changes would have. We've only been working together for a month, but my new routine of writing down my most important tasks for the following day and not looking at my phone for the first hour of the day has given me my sanity back. Thank you!" - Anturas Client, Startup Manager

Photo of the Week: I hope everyone had a great Halloween! I dressed up as the Mad Hatter (big shout out to Kelly for my makeup). What did you dress up as? Send me an email and let me know! Till next week, be kind, be curious and work hard. Tanner

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