A PETRI DISH OF POTENTIAL 

Environments don’t make a person! 

They offer opportunities to everyone who is housed within them, whether it be for a brief moment or a long time. Every environment welcomes people and like a holodeck (computer-simulated physical environment), they showcase certain features for the pleasure or dis-pleasure of the visitor. In one environment a family lives within the walls of a pleasant house with a garden and five members, and they are generally thought to be ‘happy’. In another environment a family lives in poverty under a bridge and as they struggle to keep warm, they give generously to those in similar circumstances. In a third environment, a dysfunctional family lives in wealthy surroundings, barely seeing each other and seldom expressing terms of endearment, whilst spending money on frivolous things. Whilst these are only a few of the examples, and wealthy people can be happy and poor people can be misers; each represents an environment of potentials.

We find ourselves placed within environments from birth and it is rare to find someone who does not have a gripe about how, where or when they grew up. The fact is . . . they survived the environment! They emerged with something valuable and it is the lack of ignorance that ushers a person towards understanding why they created the environment in the first place! The first step towards self mastery is to acknowledge that you survived your environment, and this applies to past and current ones, too.

Environments don’t make a person! The choices they make about themselves in the environmentmake the person! Every environment is a petri dish of potential. You choose to play on the stage, you act in the drama, in a role which suits you and you are listed in the end credits. Many choose to be the victim, the tyrant, the controller, the snitch, the betrayer, the defiant, the loser, the helpless, the powerless, the jealous and the deceiver. Likewise, the rest choose to be the lover, the helper, the leader, the adventurer, the powerful, the loyalist, the trustworthy, the observer and the achiever.

Take your pick!

You define yourself in every environment . . . even if you were stranded on a deserted island. You get to choose between the lost and deserted or the solitary and found. How you choose is decided by your thoughts while you explore that particular environment. If you don’t like the holodeck that you have chosen . . . leave. Think a different line of thoughts about yourself and give yourself a role termination order! Go and find a new environment.