Regardless of what you do every day (e.g., work for money, pleasure, charity, retired etc) you can classify how you feel about the surrounding culture/ environment into one or more of four categories.
Each category defines your behaviour and motivates your actions. These are:
- unsatisfying/ does not meet your needs
- a good match that inspires you
- not perfect for you but presents an opportunity to influence change
- not to your liking but you accept it
Recognizing your environmental category is an important skill (self awareness) . It helps you conciously act on the unconcious behavior drivers associated with the culture you are emeshed in.
Self awareness is an empowering skill that allows you to ensure your behaviour is appropriate to the circumstances. That is, control how you act separate from how you feel, to ensure positive outcomes.
Unsatisfying
Typically you would be motivated to leave this environment as soon as feasible. This is not usually a happy place for you. Don’t let your feelings drive bad (inappropriate ) behaviour.
Good Match
Embrace the environment. That is, embrace how things are and thrive. Should not be hard. In this case, you are fully comfortable with the culture.
Not Perfect
There is a real opportunity here to create an environment you would consider a good match and it’s worth trying to do so. Impact and influence behaviours are key. Have fun with it.
Not to your liking
This situation is the hardest to take and can morph into deciding to leave. Normally there is some real motivation to stay (e.g., need the money and cannot readily find a replacement). Usually you feel trapped, unhappy and stressed. This is a category you want to move away from as quickly as possible.