Choosing your surroundings: Some criteria to aim for

People living in the countryside or in small cities are in general for some reason doing better than the ones living in larger cities. People in countries with higher standards of living and more equality are better off than the ones in countries with lower standards of living and less equality. And accountants are better off than teachers it seems.

These are just a few examples indicating, perhaps, that our surroundings are important. To be perfectly honest, these mentioned relationships are really just simple statistics without much to support any causal relationship. But the basic idea is valid. It is important to choose your surroundings wisely, seeking to draw closer to those certain environments that will further your outlooks.

The following is one take on what aspects of environments that one could seek to take stock of, it is somewhat grounded in, or guided by, research but still to a large extent speculative.

Competence and autonomy

The best environments may be the ones in which people are somewhat autonomous. Some environments are more open to and supportive of autonomy.

At best, in this environment, individual decision-making is supported and people have the opportunity to shape their work and their daily affairs. An employee may for instance work towards goals, instead of work tasks being regulated in detail. In some environments though, decision-making may be highly centralized, which would then leave less time and space for the individuals.

Autonomy also means that individuals can work in a competent manner on their own as well as with others, then they may be truly autonomous. If you or the ones you work with are not competent, this may devour a lot of time and it may be hard to feel pride in your work or see any development in it.

Ultimately, people may aim for environments that will provide an opportunity to engage in or develop in an area of interest.

Collaborative and positive

The best environments are largely collaborative, environments in which people are working together effectively and creating value.

At best, when people are positive and setting their minds to create something valuable and rewarding together, they are often successful. Whether it is a simple barbecue or anything else, this kind of mutual positivity is always recommended.

An example of an environment which is often less collaborative is an organization characterized by a steep hierarchy in which people are semi-continuously competing. They spend most of their time and pennies competing with each other instead of doing something more constructive.

Another arrangement which is not very collaborative is when people are too focused on helping others. They may often spend most of their time, their pennies and their mental resources trying to advance the opportunities of their fellow co-workers. While this may be rewarding, it might not work out in the long term. Too much supportiveness is not recommendable.

How others are doing there

One of the best benchmarks of an environment is to take stock of how others are actually doing there. When most people are doing well in this environment, it may be the case that whatever affects them in a positive way may also affect you in the same way. Also, it may be that these individuals may affect you positively in a direct kind of way.

It is actually often possible to get hold of some info on how people are doing in places such as specific organizations, in specific professions or in specific parts of a country even.

Some positive examples, according to one study at least, in terms of professions, are school lunchtime supervisors, head teachers and analysts. Bar staff seem to be a happy kind, although less physically healthy and satisfied with their jobs according to the same study.

Perhaps one could seek to get in touch with others from specific environments or with experience from specific environments.

Learning and development opportunities

You do not have to learn all the time, but a bit of learning or some kind of development could be interesting and long-term rewarding. It is usually suggested that it is something desirable and positive. At best, learning should then be encouraged in the surroundings and there would be interesting learning opportunities in the specific environment.

These learning opportunities could be held by individuals in the environment to the extent that they have knowledge that would further your own knowledge, something that you would find interesting, inspiring, practical and developing.

In order to learn specific behaviors, one could hope for more specific practical cues that will assist in this learning. Observing role models may provide many such cues. It could also be very useful to get specific instructions on how to perform new tasks and behaviors. At best, there will also be the opportunity to try to find your way, to try to perform new tasks and behaviors yourself, as well as opportunities to get valid feedback from others that are skilled in the specific role or task.

These may be some important areas to take stock of and one truly should seek to draw closer to some environments while creating a bit of a distance to others.

Some areas to take stock of:

• Competence and autonomy
• Collaborative and positive
• How others are doing there
• Learning opportunities

Further reading/some sources:

• Ryff and Keyes, 1995. The structure of psychological well-being revisited. Journal of personality and social psychology. (about autonomy, positive relationships, learning and development and more)
• Ryff, 2014. Psychological well-being revisited: Advances in the science and practice of eudaimonia. Psychotherapy and psychosomatics. (same as above)
• Johnson, Cooper, Cartwright, Donald, Taylor, and Millet, 2005. The experience of work-related stress across occupations. Journal of managerial psychology. (about levels of well-being across different professions)
• Okulicz-Kozaryn and Valente, 2017. Livability and Subjective Well-Being Across European Cities. Applied Research in Quality of Life. (about sense of life satisfaction among the inhabitants in a range of European cities)
• Helliwell, Layard, and Sachs, 2017. World Happiness Report 2017. http://worldhappiness.report/ed/2017/