So I had the fish tank expert came to my house

and I ask him, "Well what happened, how come my fish died?"

And he said, "Well, one of the fish is sick

and chances are, there might be a few other fish

that might be sick as well."

And I was freaking out,

I'm like, so what should I do?

How do I fix this?

How do I treat the fish?

Do I give them like some medicine,

do I take them out and inject some needle?

I have no idea how this works, right?

He said, "Dan, you don't, if a fish is sick

you don't treat the fish, you treat the water.

See today I want to share a very profound message with you.

The number one enemy that is holding you back

from success and that is you don't treat the fish,

you treat the water.

If you want to change, you want to improve your life,

the first this you have to be aware of is your surroundings.

Who do you surround yourself with?

That's your water; you are the fish.

You see, most people,

when they attempt to make an improvement

they want to change their lives,

they want to increase income, they want to make more money,

they want to be happier, but they want to change all of that

without changing their environment.

It's virtually impossible.

You're setting yourself up for failure

because if you want to change but the environment is toxic,

the people you hang around being negative;

the people around you, they don't believe in you.

Or the workplace you are working at

that's not suitable for your long-term goals

it's not where you want to be,

well, how are you going to get out of that?

So the first thing you have to consider

is your environment, your surrounding.

Not just physically but also mentally,

meaning the place you work, your home office,

the friends around you, who you spend time with.

Now does that mean, you may be asking me,

"Dan, does that mean that you ask me to move?

What if I'm in a third world country?"

I do know a lot of my fans

they are from all over the world at this point.

That you may be from different countries

so am I asking you to move?

Yes, most likely, yes.

"Oh, but Dan, I can't move."

You need to find a way.

You need to get out of the environment.

If you want to be successful,

you first need to put yourself in a position to do so.

You want to win, if you want to win a game

first you need to at least enter the game.

So you need to find a way, whatever it takes

to get out of the environment first.

The second thing you need to consider

is the people around you, your friends.

Maybe it's the buddies you grew up with,

but are they where you want to be?

One thing that I love what my mentor said, Dan Pena,

he said, "Show me your friends, I'll show you your future."

It's very, very true.

You can't help but be influenced by your friends.

You can't help.

If they are spending time with you,

they are bitching, moaning, complaining

about whatever is going on, guess what,

that's who you are going to become.

Who you hang around with is who you become.

So does that mean that you need

to spend less time with them?

Yes, most likely as well.

What about if they are family?

One thing I've learned about family

is you can love them from a distance.

You can love them from a distance.

Maybe you want to be an entrepreneur

and they say "Don't do it, it's too risky.

Why don't you just get a safe, secure job?

Why can't you be like your mom?

Why can't you be like your dad?

Why can't you be like your cousin?"

They don't understand where you want to go.

They don't understand you ambition

and it's very difficult to change them.

One of the most difficult things to change

is someone's mind.

It's very difficult to do that,

but you could get away,

maybe at least spend less time with them.

You could choose, you cannot choose

who your family, who they are,

but you could choose how much time

you want to spend with them.

Now I know this may not sound, like politically correct.

This may not be very popular opinion.

I'm sure I'm going to get some haters in the comments,

but it's a fact.

If you want a change, treat the water, your environment.

Your willpower could only have so much power,

but your environment, it would pull you

towards the future that you want.

If you want to go this direction,

your environment is pulling you to this direction.

Now, in some cases, I am also talking about the loved ones,

your spouse, your boyfriend, your girlfriend.

Are they supportive of your goals?

Are they supportive of what you want to do?

I see this a lot as a couple; husband wants to do this,

the wife wants to do this, the spouse wants to do this,

because of a lot of, it could be negative programming

from the past.

Different direction.

You are going to have a challenge.

The books that you read, the videos that you watch,

that also makes a difference, the events that you go to.

So don't give an excuse of,

"Oh this is the way it is."

It's not the way it is, you can change it.

If there is a negative person

you don't want to spend time with,

you don't have to spend time with that person.

No one forces you to watch that t.v.

and not read a book.

No one forces you to spend time

with this person and not that person.

You always have a choice.

You can either make excuses or you can produce results;

you cannot do both.

The number one thing that's holding you back

from success, I truly believe is your environment.

The question is, comment below,

what are you going to do to change your environment?