On Becoming a Potato: Altering Our Environment for Positive Growth
In this short excerpt from A Way of Being, Carl Rogers paints a beautiful metaphor between a potato plant and our innate, human tendency to grow into our best selves:
“I remember that in my boyhood, the bin in which we stored our winter’s supply of potatoes was in the basement, several feet below a small window. The conditions were unfavourable, but the potatoes would begin to sprout — pale, white sprouts, so unlike the healthy green shoots they sent up when planted in the soil in the spring.
But these sad, spindly sprouts would grow 2 or 3 feet in length as they reached toward the distant light of the window. The sprouts were, in their bizarre, futile growth, a sort of desperate expression of the directional tendency I have been describing. They would never become plants, never mature, never fulfill their real potential.
But under the most adverse circumstances, they were striving to become. Life would not give up, even if it could not flourish. In dealing with clients whose lives have been terribly warped, in working with men and women on the back wards of state hospitals, I often think of those potato sprouts.
So unfavourable have been the conditions in which these people have developed that their lives often seem abnormal, twisted, scarcely human. Yet, the directional tendency in them can be trusted.
The clue to understanding their behaviour is that they are striving, in the only ways that they perceive as available to them, to move toward growth, toward becoming. To healthy persons, the results may seem bizarre and futile, but they are life’s desperate attempt to become itself.”
The critical takeaway is that, like the potato, we are heavily influenced by our environments and are always striving to do our best with what we are given.
Countless studies have been conducted on the subject of environmental influences on human potential. In Crafting Normative Messages to Protect the Environment by Robert B. Cialdini, the research indicated that people are even more influenced by the overarching environment than by those immediately around them. They found people are significantly more likely to litter when they are in a place that is already littered. This was an even more significant factor in whether someone would litter than if they saw someone else litter right in from them (although that also influenced their decisions).
In the “cookie and radish” study by Roy Baumeister, he found that the mere presence of cookies in an environment (which were not allowed to be eaten) seemed to reduce a person’s willpower to focus on a complex task.
The key points of this are:
Our behaviors and personal growth are heavily influenced by our environment
We are all always trying our best given the environment we are in
Fortunately, we humans, blessed with the power of consciousness, have the power to alter our physical, social, and internal environments to expand our own growth and live more fulfilling lives.
Transforming Your Physical Environment
One easy step forward involves intentionally altering our physical environment to help shape our growth.
Are there a lot of distractions in our environment? Are the constant notifications from our cell phones making our lives better or worse? Do they stimulate our growth?
Is the TV the most prominent part of your living room, or is the exercise equipment or musical instrument?
Are there chips and chocolate on the kitchen counter that are always visible, or is there fresh fruit?
Merely altering the availability of these environmental factors can have a considerable impact.
Want to stop using so much social media? Turn off your notifications for social media, so it isn’t always calling to you. Bury the social media app a few layers deep in your home screen, so it’s a little harder to get to.
Want to eat less junk food? Keep less junk food in the house. Or make it less visible, keeping healthier options out on display.
Want to play more guitar (or develop consistency with any hobby)? Keep your guitar out in eyesight and somewhere where it’ll be effortless to pick it up and start strumming whenever you have downtime.
Want to develop a more consistent yoga (or any at-home exercise) practice? Keep your yoga mat out and visible. Create a playlist of yoga videos to immediately pop one on without having to think about it.
The central theme here is access
For every environmental factor that you want to minimize - make it harder to access.
For every positive environmental factor that will help you grow in the direction you want - make it easier to access
Transforming your Social Environment
Asking for Support
We humans are tribal creatures who care deeply about those around us. Getting support from them and enrolling them in our mission of self-development can make all the difference in our success.
Ask for support from the people that care about your growth. Sit down with them and let them know that you are looking to change environmental factors to help make your life more fulfilling.
A simple, authentic conversation with your domestic partner can have a huge impact and inspire them -
“Hey, I’m looking to cut down environmental factors that are more likely to create behaviors that are not in line with me being the best version of myself. When you spend the majority of the evening watching TV, that actually influences me. It is a tempting distraction that limits my willpower to do other things that are better for me. Would you be open to spending 15 of those TV minutes supporting me in a meditation habit? Or maybe we could spend 30 of those minutes exploring yoga or tai-chi each night? Maybe we could spend 30 of those minutes exploring some hobby we’ve always been interested in but haven’t dived into due to all these distractions.” (they don’t even have to be the same hobby, just reserving that time where you both are committed to focusing on your growth will make a big difference!)
If you are interested in doing a 30-day exercise challenge - ask a friend who might be willing to do it with you!
“Hey I know we’ve both talked about wanting to exercise more - I’ve been struggling with it myself and I think if you help me out by doing this challenge with me, it’ll make a big difference in my ability to stick with it”
Here’s another simple one that is very relevant to my personal experience:
“Hey, I’ve been working to decrease how much time I spend playing video games so I can focus on [personal growth, some hobby you are interested in, taking an online course, spending more in-person time with people, etc] - so it would be a big help to me if you didn’t ask me to play with you so frequently. How about we just schedule a couple hours Sunday night as game time?”
The point is to be vulnerable and open about how you’d like to change your surroundings for your own betterment. People will amaze you as to how willing they can be to help when you approach from a place of vulnerability and caring.
Out with the Negative
Are there people in our lives that are a negative influence? Are they making our lives better or worse? Are they good or bad for our well being and our growth?
This can be a tough one. Sometimes we grow so attached to the people we are used to that we fail to see how they are making us smaller than we truly are.
For the people you interact with the most, ask yourself this:
If I reached out to them to ask for support in my personal growth (like in the previous section), would they compassionately help me and empower me? Or would they laugh at me, belittle me, or ignore me? Would they say “I’d love to support you” or would they sneer “oh, you’re going to try exercising again for a week before giving up?”
Even better is to take it a step further - actually ask them as in the previous section. It’s better to have concrete results rather than relying on assumptions.
It can often be eye-opening to find out which people will fall into which category. Personally, I’ve been very pleasantly surprised by how eager people tend to be to help when you authentically reach out!
Unfortunately, there will inevitably be people who feel threatened by your motivation for growth. These people have their own growth journey, and it is best to limit contact with them for the time being. It doesn’t mean they are bad people, just that their current way of being is a negative factor for your own growth right now. It is always possible to revisit and rekindle the relationship later.
Transforming your Psychological Environment
The difference between us and Carl Rogers’ potato is that we have consciousness* - our thoughts (especially those automatic thoughts that circle in our head and don’t do much good for us) can be considered part of the environment that affects our outcome.
Just as our external environment alters our potential, our internal, psychological environment shapes us. Luckily, we have the ability to transform our internal environment.
By learning more about our thoughts and steering them to be more positive and productive, we can alter our internal environment to help ourselves grow to our fullest potential. Similarly, learning to accept and transmute negative thoughts will build resilience to negative internal environmental factors.
Spending time with a psychotherapist or a coach, reading books on CBT or other self-development topics, and developing a daily meditation practice are all great ideas toward empowering you to transform your inner world.
Next Steps
Think about what environmental factors you can change to help you live your best life.
Are there distractions I can limit?
Are there hobbies or positive life choices I can create easier access to?
Are there people in my life I’d be better off minimizing interaction with? Are there people that I’d feel would be a positive influence if I spent more time with them?
Can I garner support from the people who care about me?
Are there negative thoughts I can reframe? Can I live truer to my values to positively shape my internal environment?
What can I do to transform my inner world? Could a psychotherapist or coach help me?
What can I do to commit to taking 10 minutes to a day to develop a meditation practice?
Your environment shapes you, and your environment is very much yours to transform. That is the power of human consciousness.
Be the best damn potato you can possibly be.
*the consciousness of potatoes is debatable, let’s not get into it right now
