Welcome to Quiet Momentum, a short weekly newsletter from someone on the journey alongside you. Each week I share what's working, what isn't, and what's worth thinking about.
As I went to check out from my local grocery store with my dinner ingredients for that night, I had an odd craving for a root beer. I wanted a nice cold drink as I made dinner.
I quickly pivoted to that aisle, grabbed a four-pack of glass bottles, then made my way to the checkout.
Once I got home, I cracked one open, put the remaining three in the fridge, and got going on my dinner.
I thought nothing of it at the time, and at this point, you might not either.
But it was the next day when I realized I had set up my environment the very opposite of what I'd been trying to do. I caught myself accidentally falling victim to what I write about intentionally.
The night before, I wanted a root beer. One, not four. But I instead bought a four-pack. Part of it was that the four-pack just felt like a better value than a single bottle. The math made sense in the moment. But that means I was buying three extra root beers for the fridge, when my original intention was zero.
With three more in the door, looking me right in the eye each time, I reached for one again the next afternoon. As I sat down, the realization came to me that my craving from last night had already been met. I didn't crave one anymore. But since I bought more than what I needed and they were right there, well… it was harder NOT to reach for one.
Most environmental design content, including my own, tells you how to set up your environment for success. I quickly realized I fell victim to the opposite. I accidentally primed my environment for something I didn't intend.
And it wasn't the first time.
I’ve done the same thing when I read. I’ll sit down with a book and leave my phone face up next to me. A notification pops up, it intrigues me, and a few minutes later, I'm scrolling. Then I'm trying to remember what page I was on and what I had just read. The book wasn't the problem. The phone being within reach was.
Different trigger, but the same trick.
It's like keeping leftover Halloween candy in a bowl on the counter "just for guests," or sitting down on the couch in your regular clothes after work, "just for a minute" before the gym.
These all seem subtle, but they're all small invitations to avoid eating healthy and skipping the gym just because you got comfy.
If I had only bought one root beer to hit that initial craving, I would instead be reaching for a glass of water the next night. Instead, I trained my environment for failure, and failure followed.
I'm not sure these accidents are always avoidable. But once you start noticing the small invitations you've unknowingly left yourself, they're harder to ignore.
Look around your kitchen. Your desk. Your bedroom. What's there because you put it there on purpose, and what's just there because you stopped paying attention to it?
The tricky part is that none of these feel like real decisions in the moment. A four-pack of root beer. A phone left face up. A couch you sat down on for just a minute. They're almost too small to take seriously.
But that's exactly what makes them dangerous.
Every small decision you make is a quiet vote for the kind of person you're becoming. Buy the four-pack and you're voting, accidentally, for someone who reaches for sugar instead of water. Leave the phone face up and you're voting for someone who can't sit with a single uninterrupted thought. Sink into the couch in your work clothes and you're voting for someone who skips the gym.
These can be flipped the other way. It just takes more effort to do it on purpose than by accident.
I fill my water bottle and place it by my bed so hydration is the first thing I do in the morning. I set out my supplements on the counter at night so they're unavoidable. I moved my allergy medication a few inches forward on the bathroom counter so skipping it becomes harder than taking it. I removed the TV from my bedroom entirely.
Same trick the root beer used on me. Just flipped the other way.
Your environment is shaping you, whether you designed it or not. The question is which version of you you're voting for.
Nobody thinks a root beer is going to change who they are.
But it's never the root beer. It's the pattern underneath it.
The Line This Week
