When I moved to Denver in 2009, my community became the folks at the newly-opened CrossFit LoDo.
It was my home away from home, and on many weeks it was my primary home.
Outside of the normal throes of weekly workouts, a small group of us started having informal workouts on Saturday mornings that we called Treehouse. It was an excuse to workout, yes. But more than that, it was an excuse to hang out together.
Treehouse grew every week until eventually it was dozens and dozens of people.
It was my favorite part of my week for many years.
Small circle, big impact.
When our first son passed away in 2014, my circle got much smaller.
I took a break from the gym, and would instead do park workouts with a handful of buddies that I knew would help me keep my mind right. They gave me an excuse to keep moving, but more importantly, gave me the space to go through the process of grief in a way that wasn’t destructive.
Small circle, big impact.
When I started coaching other executives in tech in 2022, one of the first things I did was hire a coach. I wanted to surround myself with as many people as possible that had built 7-figure coaching businesses.
Now I get to have calls every single week with people doing just that.
Small circle, big impact.
Yesterday I had 2 of my closest friends over to recreate that Treehouse feel from years ago. We worked out, cold plunged, and grilled out afterward while our tiny humans ran through the splash pad for hours on end. I’ll have a smile on my face for the rest of the week because of that.
Small circle, big impact.
Our environment matters.
The people we surround ourselves with matters.
They matter because they set the bar for what is normal in our life.
Doing half marathon trail runs at 12,000 feet sounds unreasonable until you surround yourself with people that do just that.
Prioritizing your health feels abnormal until you surround yourself with people that do just that.
Building a 7-figure business feels impossible until you surround yourself with people that have done just that.
If you have a low bar in any area of life, don’t start with goals. Start with the people around you. Do they give you energy or drain you? Do they push you to do objectively better things or worse things? Do they raise your bar or lower it?
Small circle, big impact.
An excerpt from my second book, Redwood: A Guide to Leading a Remarkable Life:
Humans are intrinsically drawn to be included in a group. Part of that desire and drive to be included involves doing the things that lead to inclusion. If doing a specific activity, or building a specific habit, creates inclusion into a group of people then we are, by nature, incredibly motivated to participate. It satisfies one of the most basic needs of being a human - feeling a part of a community.
The mindset of those around us shapes our own mindset. The habits of those around us shape our own habits. We can either accept this reality and use it to our advantage, or we can brush it off as something we can overcome.
If we choose the latter we are going to face an uphill battle of creating a reality in our own life that is separate from the reality of those around us. Simple on paper, but incredibly difficult in practice.
✌️ and ❤️,
Adam Griffin
Certified High Performance Coach™
👉 Forward Coaching