While you're trying to change your habits, there are two main places to look for traction.
You could try to change:
You: what you want and choose to do, or
Your environment: what your environment makes convenient and encourages you to do.
Every choice is driven by some combination of those two factors.
What you want and choose to do will vary depending on the people, objects, and options that surround you.
For example, you'll likely make different choices in your home while your kids are distressed, there are no groceries in the cupboard, and the neighbour is jackhammering his driveway… than you would while the humble abode is clean, organized, and settled.
The environments we live in are powerful influencers of our choices.
Both consciously and subconsciously, the surrounding environment is constantly giving us clues on what to do next — what to want and what to avoid.
If you're unaware of the effects that your environment is having on you, you may end up making unintentional choices that are moving you away from your goals.
Building a supportive home environment is about taking a step back, to look more broadly at what's around you.
How exactly are the people and things around you affecting the choices that you're making?
No one acts in isolation.
Humans are needy people, in need of a lot of environmental support.
That's an awesome fact of life: life happens in relationships, within rich and complex ecosystems. Every individual is an integral part of the environments they live in.
Alternatively, not recognizing the importance of environments and relationships may leave you feeling lacking.
Putting too much pressure on yourself to change as a sole individual, without the environmental context of the bigger picture, may leave you feeling struggling for more "willpower".
Remember, you're only part of the equation.
Looking at yourself without considering the environmental factors will leave you with only willpower to blame.
It's not only about your willpower.
(It’s also not only about the other synonyms for willpower: like a lack of determination, drive, restraint, resolve, self-discipline, self-control, resilience, can-do spirit… or any other way to say that "you're just not trying hard enough".)
The key to unlocking more progress may have less to do with willpower, and more to do with looking at the big picture.
Willpower is only one part of the picture.
If you zoom-out to look at the big picture, you may find some new creative solutions for getting the change that you want, while doing less work.
The more support you get from your environment, the less work you'll be demanding on the brute force of your willpower.
Maybe, you can do less work and let your environment take some of that workload off.
Chris, myHealthCoach