Priscilla's Blog

It is amazing how just a month has 28 days in a year and sometimes, 29 days. Much more amazing is the drastic change a person can have in 28 days. I saw a movie on Netflix titled ‘28 Days’ and I picked some lessons from it which I’ll be sharing here. 

• Every person is a product of their environment.

Humans are wired to be social beings and take uploads from their environment without their conscious permission. 

What you see and hear every day is forming a perception in your mind. You might not get to exhibit some of the traits you’ve picked up from your environment till 5 years later but those traits were stored up because of the consistent interactions you had with them.

In the movie ‘28 Days’, the mother of the major character had a drug addiction which led to her death; many years later the daughter is seen battling the same.

In the same manner, the rehabilitation center where the main character ended up was another environment that helped to build new traits in her. The daily interactions she made helped break down the existing mindset while building and strengthening a new one.

• Your association matters a lot.

The people you move with can either help amplify the traits you’ve picked up from your environment or help refine them. They also can help you identify them and the work that needs to be done to become great at the disadvantages those traits have created in you.

The major character in the movie moved with people who were alcoholics and addicted to drugs. This didn’t in any way help her instead it amplified the unhealthy trait that had been dormant in her and encouraged it till it became a norm and daily lifestyle for her.

• Before change can happen on the outside, it has to happen on the inside.

A beautiful thing I saw exemplified in this movie is how they showed the breaking down of an existing mindset, the building of a new one, and the strengthening of that new mindset.

Read on mindsets.

• Change is hard and painful.

Anyone who says change isn’t hard and painful definitely hasn’t gone through total change. In the process of causing a change, the things you thought you couldn’t live without stay hanging on your mind but you have to still proceed to taking the actions you have purposed to do.

Addiction is hard and without the drugs, life can seem like it’s ending. As seen in the movie, cigarettes felt like taking a breath of fresh air to those at the rehab.

This is just like any aspect of life, when you want to see progress in an area, you have to do the hard work that would cause that change to happen. You have to continually deny yourself of those pleasurable acts that cause damage to your overall goal and life.

• To adhere to the change you want to see, you need to audit the people around you.

Your environment and association are big influences on who you become eventually. 

When you’ve created certain habits and traits with a person or group of people and you need to adhere to the change you are trying to achieve; you need to audit the association you keep and the environment you position yourself in.

It is a big and tough decision but one worth taking as not auditing your association could destroy all the hard work you have endured and make you relapse if you don’t choose rightly.

Like I always say, your life is yours and you enjoy or endure the consequences of the decisions you make. The experiences you have consciously and unconsciously had should all line up to make you the person you have envisioned yourself to be. You might have had it rough and unpleasant but now you know better and should do better.

It doesn’t have to be an addiction, it might be something you need to cause a change upon. 

Don’t look down on yourself – take charge of your life, make the hard but right decisions, and reap the reward in due course.

Thank you for reading.

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