You are a product of the people you surround yourself with.
So take a look around.
Who are those people?
What do they do with their lives?
What are their habits like?
What dreams do they have?
Do they complain and act like the world is out to get them, or do they take control of everything they can and take actions regardless of the odds against them?
Hopefully, as you reviewed your list, you are inspired and feel like you’re even slightly lagging behind.
Hopefully you look up to them and aspire to be more like them over the next several years.
Hopefully, your people are hugely supportive, and tell you to chase after your dreams.
Hopefully, they nudge you and push you to get a little uncomfortable. They pick you up when you’re down and help dust you off when you fall.
Hopefully, they have mostly good life, health and wellness habits.
Hopefully they’re active, they eat well and they know the importance of taking care of their bodies.
If you have friends like those, you’re probably doing pretty well, even if you don’t feel like it (that’s because you’re being pulled in a positive direction).
If you find yourself doubting those traits in your people, and you’re noticing them in yourself, that’s completely ok, but you might want to shift course a little.
After all, the more you surround yourself with people who hold you back, who don’t support you, who influence you negatively, or who nudge you away from your hopes and dreams, the harder all the things you want in life are going to be.
In fact, I’d argue that if you keep a group of people around you who you don’t look up to, it’ll be nearly impossible to get all you want out of life.
So, what’s a person to do?
While it’s tempting to tell you to just torch all the bridges you’ve got between you and those negative influences, that’s not realistic nor fair.
After all, a lot of the time, those people can be really close to you. Family, parents, close friends, co-workers. Kinda hard to tell you to pick up the phone and break up with all of the people you’ve had in your life for years.
You don’t need to break up with and tell them how it’s not them it’s you, and you don’t need to put them down for being bad influences on you.
A better solution is to start building new, more positive relationships and a new support group.
While that might seem daunting and slightly dramatic, it’s really not all that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things.
You just need to find a new room of people to hang out with.
The great news is that the world is so dang connected these days that it’s really easy to find groups of people who you want to be more like.
Where is that room and where do you find those people?
Well, I’d start by finding the groups who best represent your goal and aspirations. Local entrepreneurs groups, outdoor enthusiasts, parenting groups, our gym right here in Sandpoint!
Just start looking out for people who are doing the things you want to do and introduce yourself. Sure it’s scary, but it’s well worth it.
And your friends that you may start to leave behind?
They’ll be fine too.
Yeah, you can probably imagine that when you hang out with them less, they might be a little upset, but life is too short.
And great news! If they choose to want to be inspired by you and your efforts, they can totally do that too.
Just offer a helping hand when they express interest and show them the way.