During this time of being home and not being able to be social with my friends often, I have found myself really reconsidering who my “friends” are. I feel like I have a very, very solid group of friends who have very similar goals as me and continue to push myself, but there are still those some that at times drag me down. As I continue to grow as a person, I think it is easy to say you can outgrow your friends and some friends were just meant to be temporary in your life. Now I say this, not in a mean way, by any means. I say this in a way that is whole heartily truthful. My dad used to always say a quote to mean when I was younger and especially in high school and the beginning of college. He used to always say, “you are the company you keep.” Now this took me a bit to fully understand, but now I know what he means. You are who you constantly surround yourself with. You become a sum of the five closest people that you are around. Man, that is real. So, to put into perspective if you are around goal-driven, like-minded people like you are chances are they rub off on you and you are even more goal-driven than before and constantly trying to push yourself to be better. On the other hand, if you surround yourself with individuals who sleep all day long, have very little motivation to do much and do not really have goals for their life, that only is going to bring you down in the long run. You want to surround yourself with individuals always pushing themselves and you to be better, day in and day out. Like I said this took me a while to figure out, being the social person I am, up until recently when I started to really home in on my personal development and pushing myself to be better.
Here are some my tips to you to surround yourself with the right people:
· Goodbye Negative Nellies!
You do not want to be around people that complain all day and do nothing to change it. There is nothing worse than hearing someone complain and just sit there and do nothing, say goodbye to these people and you will start to see the negativity fade away.
· Be around people that are smarter than you!!
Yes, this one right here. Not only are these people smarter than you but they push you and help you learn more. You want to be always growing and learning and never staying stagnant.
· Be friends with people that have already accomplished goals you hope to someday
Now this one is good! These goals could range from buying a car, getting a full-time job, graduating college, buying a house, owning your own business and so much more! To see your friends, accomplish these things, it pushes you just that much more to be just as successful and accomplish that goal yourself.
· Friends that are positive
Having positive influences in your life is far more important than people think. This is your little army, the ones who you want to tell all your good news to, and they encourage you and believe in you every step of the way. And when you fail, they are there to pick you back up and push you to try again.
At the end of the day, you will know who you should surround yourself with or not. These are people that are influential to you. And remember, you are the company you keep. Always, always keep that in the back of your mind. Especially if you are trying to grow as a person and crush big goals.