Environment Engineering: The Secret Weapon of World-Class Athletes

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Michael Phelps is maniacal. That is the root of his excellence.

He’d swim nearly 50 miles each week in pursuit of his Olympic dreams.

Of these 80,000 meters, he’d swim portions in the dark to prepare for the unexpected. To simulate altitude training, Phelps slept in chambers simulating 9,000-foot elevation. He followed his coach around the country to maintain a meticulously controlled practice environment.

Phelps engineered his excellence by engineering his environment.

The best in the world are constantly molding what goes on around them. We make nearly 35,000 unconscious decisions daily, almost all of which are a function of the environment we’ve created. That environment includes the people, culture, and physical space we inhabit, and plays a much bigger role in performance than we realize.

What most people leave to chance, you can control. And by doing that, you’ll rise to the top.

The science behind the influence of the environment is robust.

An MIT study found that being near a high performer increases performance by 10%. Another study done at Northwestern found a similar effect, and that sitting by an underperformer can hurt performance significantly. And a host of studies on emotional contagion at work found that positive emotion predicts morale and productivity, while negative emotion undermines performance (Ekanayake & Weerasinghe, 2019).

The environment also plays a huge role in how we engineer behavior.

Studies of habit change show that little manipulations, like moving the TV remote out of the room or leaving our gym clothes by the door, can decrease the time we spend watching tv and increase our odds of exercise, respectively. And we all know intuitively that if you want to avoid the pint of ice cream at the end of the day, the easiest way to do that is just not have it at home.

This research teaches us that who we’re around and the space we’re in matter, a lot, if we want to be great.

Here’s the blueprint for creating an environment that gets the most out of you.

The Three Pillars of High-Performance Environments

Motivational Climate

The motivational climate you create has an outsized impact on performance outcomes. Research shows that environments focused on three key elements - autonomy, mastery, and belonging - consistently produce better results than those focused purely on outcomes (Ryan & Deci, 2020).

Autonomy

Elite performers need to feel ownership over their development path. You want to feel like what you do makes a difference and that you’re responsible for the outcomes you create. That sense of ownership and agency fosters intrinsic motivation and accountability.

Here are some simple ways you can encourage autonomy:

• Providing meaningful choices about training approaches
• Allowing input into goal-setting and strategy
• Supporting independent decision-making
• Using language that emphasizes personal responsibility ("What do you think?" vs. giving directives)

When you coach your performers this way, you’re inviting them to take greater control over their destiny.

The result is going to be better engagement and performance.

Mastery

The environment should emphasize long-term development over short-term results.

In sports and other high-stakes professions, we tend to measure success solely by outcomes. But the best in the world shift from a focus on results to a focus on becoming the best they can be. This subtle shift is a catalyst for a sustainable worth ethic and the mindset needed to thrive despite inevitable ups and downs.

The environment is the primary determinant of this mindset.

If coaches and leaders discount progress over outcomes, that’ll drive the approach most athletes have. It’s hard to overcome a coach who doesn’t care if you get better if you’re not winning. It’s hard to stay committed to becoming your best when it isn’t valued or rewarded.

Here’s what you can do to emphasize mastery:

• Celebrating effort and progress, not just achievements
• Viewing mistakes as learning opportunities
• Setting process-focused goals alongside outcome goals
• Measuring growth over time, not just current performance
• Creating opportunities for deliberate practice

Belonging

You perform better when you feel connected to something bigger than yourself.

It helps you keep perspective, is a source of resilience, and can provide a purpose. You feel a sense of community and like what you’re doing matters. Belonging gives you a reason to persist.

How to bring belonging to your team:

• Foster meaningful relationships between team members
• Create shared values and team identity
• Celebrate collective wins and emphasize collective support during setbacks
• Ensure everyone understands their role in the larger mission

When these three elements align, performers develop intrinsic motivation that sustains excellence over the long-term. The key is discipline - the environment must reliably reinforce these values through both words and actions.

There are two other elements for the top 1% that are worth discussing here.

The first is your “social architecture.” Essentially, this is about surrounding yourself with other high performers (we know this lifts you up) and building a network that elevates your game. As you learned earlier, being around other high performers meaningfully enhances your performance.

The second is to not neglect your physical space. You can set up where you perform to remind you of key habits, like placing a reminder in your locker.

Action Steps

Let's turn these principles into practice with specific steps you can take today.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Many people fail to optimize their environment because they:

• Wait for the "perfect" moment to start making changes
• Get lost in endless planning without taking action
• Focus solely on physical space while ignoring social influences
• Try to change everything at once, leading to overwhelm

Many people fail to optimize their environment because they:

• Wait for the "perfect" moment to start making changes
• Get lost in endless planning without taking action
• Focus solely on physical space while ignoring social influences
• Try to change everything at once, leading to overwhelm

Consider Chris, a college basketball player aiming to make it to the pros. He spent countless hours watching YouTube videos about high-end training but kept putting off going to the best gym in his town. He continued practicing with recreational players at the local gym instead of seeking out better competition and spent time after practice with friends who had no business being around a pro (to put it nicely).

By waiting for the perfect environment, Chris missed out on simple improvements—like taking care of his body and finding stronger practice partners—that could have immediately elevated his game.

Quick Wins (Start Today)

1. The 5-Minute Environment Audit
   • Rate your current workspace, social circle, and daily routines on a scale of 1-10
   • Identify the single biggest distraction in your environment
   • List three elements that make you perform better
2. Three Key Changes

• Remove your biggest distraction (phone, TV, etc.)
• Add one performance trigger (like laying out workout clothes or putting your goals up somewhere)
• Establish a routine for checking in with another high performer.

Remember: Small, consistent changes compound over time.

Your environment shapes who you become.

While talent and hard work matter, the space you create around yourself—both physical and social—often makes the difference between good and great.

Think of your environment as a force multiplier. Every small change compounds over time: the high performers you surround yourself with, the reminders you place in your space, the routines you build. These aren't just nice-to-haves; they're the hidden architecture of excellence.

Start today. Pick one element of your environment to optimize. Whatever you choose, remember that excellence isn't just about what you do—it's about creating an environment that makes excellence inevitable by leveraging the people around you.

Just like Michael Phelps didn't leave his training environment to chance, you shouldn't either. Your environment is always helping or hurting.

Make sure it's lifting you up.

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