Your 1st Environment is Inherited… It’s Up to You to Create Your Next One

… and every one after that.”

Every one of us begins life in an environment we did not choose.

We don’t choose our parents.

We don’t choose our neighborhood.

We don’t choose our school.

We don’t choose the conversations that surround us during childhood.

We inherit our first environment.

For many people, that’s where the story ends.

For me, it was where the story began.

The Environment That Raised Me

I grew up in a modest home in northwest Ohio. We weren’t wealthy.

In fact, I didn’t even realize we were poor because I never felt deprived. I had everything I needed—a loving family, food on the table, a safe place to sleep, and a mom who believed in hard work.

But something else was happening.

Inside that ordinary environment, another environment was quietly forming.

I discovered books.

The library became one of my favorite places. And because of my mom I spent countless hours reading the Encyclopedia Britannica. In those pages I explored places I had never seen, professions I had never imagined, scientific discoveries, world history, business, engineering, medicine, architecture, and ideas that stretched far beyond the boundaries of my neighborhood.

Without realizing it, I was building a second environment.

One inside my mind.

And that environment became more influential than the one outside my front door.

The Atmosphere Around Us

William Walker Atkinson wrote in the late 1800s and early 1900’s extensively about what he called the mental atmosphere of places.

He believed homes, businesses, cities develop a prevailing mental tone that influences those who enter them. Silicon Valley and Boston / Cambridge are examples.

Wallace D Wattles, who wrote during the same period, took it a step further believing that strong minds could be influenced by that atmosphere—or become the force that changed it.

I’ve often thought about these ideas. There are places that feel alive. Places filled with hope…

Innovation.

Beauty.

Possibility.

And there are places that seem to carry discouragement, complacency, or decline.

Whether you describe that as culture, atmosphere, energy, or simply the cumulative effect of human behavior, concentrated in a single place, we all recognize it when we experience it.

Environment matters.

It is always teaching us something.

A Legacy I Didn’t Understand Until Later

My hometown of Toledo has always held a special place in my heart.

Long before I was born, the city had been transformed by one remarkable man—Samuel “Golden Rule” Jones.

Jones grew up in poverty, became a successful industrialist in the expanding oil Industry. He was elected mayor of Toledo at the turn of the twentieth century (late 1800's - early 1900's).

He believed a city should be more than functional. It should elevate the human spirit through parks, trees, beauty, honesty, compassion, and public service.

His philosophy left an enduring imprint on Toledo’s civic identity and beauty, and inspired generations long after his death.

Looking back now, I sometimes wonder if I felt that legacy without even knowing it.

There was always an urge inside me to transcend my circumstances.

To build.

To improve.

To create.

Yo beautify.

To leave things better than I found them.

Perhaps that desire came entirely from within.

Or perhaps, as Atkinson suggested, I was also responding to the atmosphere created by those who came before me.

Whatever its source, I’m grateful for it.

Wattles Added the Missing Piece

Wallace D. Wattles agreed that environment matters. But he made a profound observation that has stayed with me for years.

He wrote:

“Do not wait for a change of environment before you act; get a change of environment by action.” 

Think about that.

Most people believe they need better

circumstances before they can begin.

A better job.

A better neighborhood.

More money.

More education.

More time.

Wattles turns that thinking upside down.

Your next environment is not something you wait for. It is something you create.

He continued by encouraging readers to hold a clear vision of the environment they desired while acting wholeheartedly within the one they already occupied.

That idea perfectly describes my own life.

I didn’t wait until I lived in a different house before I began thinking differently.

I didn’t wait until I had more money before reading books about business.

I didn’t wait until I became successful before acting like someone who was preparing to become successful.

My environment influenced me.

But eventually my thinking began creating new environments.

The Cycle That Changes Everything

Over the years I’ve come to see the relationship this way:

Environment influences thinking.

Thinking creates programming.

Programming produces habits.

Habits create actions.

Actions produce results.

Results create a new environment.

Then the cycle begins again.

Everyone inherits the first environment in that cycle.

Very few intentionally design the second.

Yet that’s where transformation begins.

The Most Important Environment

Today, when people ask me what environment matters most in their ability to create success, my answer surprises them.

It isn’t the city you live in.

It isn’t your office.

It isn’t even your home.

The most important environment you’ll ever build is the one inside your own mind.

That’s where beliefs live.

That’s where vision is formed.

That’s where identity takes shape.

That’s where possibility either expands or contracts.

When you intentionally fill your mind with great ideas, uplifting people, meaningful conversations, timeless books, and a compelling vision for your future, your external environment eventually begins reflecting your internal one.

It may not happen overnight. But it will happen.

Invest 5 Minutes to Snap Yourself Into a New Reality

Step 1: Audit Your Environment

Ask yourself:

What am I allowing to influence my thinking every day?

People.

Media.

Books.

Music.

Social media.

Conversations.

Are they moving you toward the life you want—or away from it?

Step 2: Build One Better Environment

Choose one environment to improve this week.

Visit a library.

Join a gym.

Read a great book.

Spend time with someone who inspires you.

Take a walk in a beautiful park.

Begin intentionally creating the atmosphere that supports the person you’re becoming.

Step 3: Become the Environment

Wherever you go today, ask yourself:

Am I elevating this environment… or merely occupying it?

Be the person who brings optimism.

Curiosity.

Integrity.

Encouragement.

Progress.

Because you don’t just live in environments. You help create them.

Here’s the Real Insight

You inherit your first environment - But you create every one after that.

Your future isn’t waiting for a better place.

It’s waiting for you to become the kind of person who creates one.

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Namaste 🙏🏾

Mark I Johnson

August 12, 2026