Curious about Environment: There Are So Many Features and Issues That Pertain to Our Environment. What Are Yours?

Definition of environment: That which environs or surrounds; surrounding conditions, influences, or forces, by which living forms are influenced and modified in their growth and development.

“The environment is everything that isn't me.” - Albert Einstein, German physicist

“We begin to see, therefore, the importance of selecting our environment with the greatest of care, because environment is the mental feeding ground out of which the food that goes into our minds is extracted.” - Napoleon Hill, American writer

I am thinking of moving to a new apartment, but also realize that I love my current one. I have created an environment that I love – spacious, modern, and minimalist. It actually is on the large size for one person and sports eight large closets, two baths and two bedrooms. And yet, because of its size and accommodations, it is a bit pricey. I go from thinking about a smaller space to setting goals for working harder, so that the rent won’t be a monthly strain.

Have you ever made a list of what kind of environment is important to you? What features are necessary and what are nice to have, but not a necessity? And, there are other environmental concerns, like our location, the type of community that surrounds us, and even the people we hang out with. Everything has an impact, influence and shapes us and our futures.

As I suspected, I found many excellent quotations about environment. Of course, there were many that addressed recent environmental concerns – I must admit that we are having unusual weather conditions here in Ohio. I chose quotations with a good variety of focus, so let’s go:

• “There's a kind of dynamic quality about theater and that dynamic quality expresses itself in relation to, first of all, the environment in which it's being staged; then the audience, the nature of the audience, the quality of the audience.” - Wole Soyinka, Nigerian writer
• “That's the great thing about having your friends around you. I've known these guys forever. I really enjoy their company just as people. You couldn't ask for a better work environment.” - Drew Carey, American actor
• “If my parents had discouraged me, I would have turned out very differently. They raised me in an open-minded, liberal environment.” - Tom Ford, American designer
• “If you're not adapting to the very rapidly changing environment, if you can't think creatively, you lose big in this society because there are very few jobs for you left.” - Robert Sternberg, American educator
• “My wife and I now live in the summers in northern Michigan in an environment which is wonderfully conducive to research, and where most of my work in the last 15 years has been done.” Douglass North, American economist
• “But I think you have to - whatever the environment looks like, it does enter into people's art work one way or another; it's very remote or it isn't. It's remote in my work but it has to have a certain degree of ordinariness.” - Donald Judd, American artist
• “I think the younger generation, the people poised to dominate the workforce, are more socially conscious. They are more demanding in terms of environment and how that environment contributes to their life.” - Helmut Jahn, German-American, architect
• “Words are chameleons, which reflect the color of their environment.” - Learned Hand, American judge
• “It's important to determine which surroundings work best for you, and then build that environment to suit your needs.” - Marilu Henner, American actress

And, a few more:

• “Man is largely a creature of habit, and many of his activities are more or less automatic reflexes from the stimuli of his environment.” - G. Stanley Hall, American psychologist
• “We grew up in a very creative environment and were exposed to the arts at a very young age, so it's not a surprise that all of us are in some form of the arts.” - Spike Lee, American director
• “Your outlook upon life, your estimate of yourself, your estimate of your value are largely colored by your environment. Your whole career will be modified, shaped, molded by your surroundings, by the character of the people with whom you come in contact every day.” - Orison Swett Marden, American writer
• “What is sacred among one people may be ridiculous in another; and what is despised or rejected by one cultural group, may in a different environment become the cornerstone for a great edifice of strange grandeur and beauty.” - Hu Shih, Chinese philosopher
• “After all, sustainability means running the global environment - Earth Inc. - like a corporation: with depreciation, amortization and maintenance accounts. In other words, keeping the asset whole, rather than undermining your natural capital.” - Maurice Strong, Canadian businessman
• “If people have a basic understanding of right from wrong, possess a strong desire to better themselves and persist in there cause, they can break the chain of any negative environment.” - Dave Pelzer, American writer
• “There are two ways of being creative. One can sing and dance. Or one can create an environment in which singers and dancers flourish.” - Warren G. Bennis, American psychologist
• “Our environment, the world in which we live and work, is a mirror of our attitudes and expectations.” - Earl Nightingale, American entertainer

So, is your environment working with and for you? Or, could it be holding you back. Just a few tweaks and adjustments can make a huge difference! What can you add or take away?