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If you’re relying on willpower alone to help you lose weight, improve your relationships, or achieve more at work, you’re doomed to fail. The environment around us is far too powerful, stimulating, addicting, and stressful to overcome by white knuckling. The only way to stop just surviving and learn to truly thrive in today’s world is to proactively shape your environment.

That’s the premise of Willpower Doesn’t Work by Medium.com’s most-read writer, Benjamin Hardy. Building on copious existing research, as well as his own experience of growing up in a broken family afflicted by addiction and drug use, Hardy explains how people can change their lives on every level by making small, impactful changes in their environment like:

* Creating “enriched environments”–using tougher challenges and personal investment to force yourself to rise to the occasion.

* Growing into your goals-creating multiple layers of accountability to ensure you stay on track.

* Becoming the teacher-stepping into a leadership role (even before you think you’re ready) to accelerate your skill development and commitment.

* Rotating your environments-getting out of your rut by literally changing your physical surroundings throughout the day or week.

From simple steps like removing things that conflict with your values (like junk food, junk media, even junk people), to incorporating new tools (like fasting or embedding “positive triggers” to avoid self-sabotage), these strategies are how you proactively shape your surroundings so you can consciously evolve into the person you want to become.