Invest your Most Valuable Possession, your Time Around the Right People

The influences, which the people you spend time around have on your life, are very subtle. Just like anything, either positive or negative, if you repeat something consistently over time, they add up and eventually shape the way you live. The people you consistently spend time around will eventually influence you to dress the same, talk the same, eat the same type of food, read the same books. Or worse influence you not to read at all and over time their influence will cause you to even start thinking the same as they do. As you know what you continually think about, you will eventually bring about.

If you are spending time around people, who spend everything they earn, then it is very likely that you will do the same.
If you are spending time around people, who spend their weekends watching sport and no time learning and reading, then you will most likely do the same.
If you spend time around people, who do not exercise or look after their health, then that is the way you will treat your body too.
If you spend time around people who do not read, then you will most certainly not invest time to read and grow.
Are the People you associate with a positive influence on you?

It is clear that if you associate with people who do not support you on your success journey, they will keep nudging you off course so subtly, that you won’t even notice the negative changes. Every association you have with people matters. You are either being influenced in a negative way and they are taking you off course. Or if you have carefully chosen the people you surround yourself with, they are positively influencing you.

Aim to only associate with people that have a positive energizing influence on your life. These associations will help you to stay on the path to success and keep tipping the scales towards allowing you to enjoy positive results in your life.

People Influence and Shape your Life

The people you associate with do influence and shape your life; they do determine the direction your life will take. So choose the people you associate with very carefully.

To ensure that you are surrounding yourself with the right people look at all your associations and ask yourself the following questions about them:

Who am I spending most of my time around? Take a good look at everyone that could influence your life.
How are these associations affecting me? What have these associations got me thinking, doing, listening to and how do they make me feel.
Is the way these associations are affecting me OK? Are they energizing and positive or are they negatively affecting my behaviour? Both will take you somewhere in the future, but only one will take you where you want to go.
After exploring all your associations break them into the following three categories, disassociations, limited associations and expanded associations.

Disassociations – These will be difficult, but very necessary decisions for you to make. Choosing to disassociate from people that are negatively affecting your growth or long term performance is essential. This choice as difficult as it may be, is one of the most important choices you will make on the path to live your potential.
Limited Associations – The rule here is simple – invest major time with major or positive influencers and minimal time with minor or negative influencers. Explore your priorities and values and ensure that you invest your most valuable possession, namely your time, as wisely as possible, with people that offer you value and who you in return can add value in return.
Expanded Associations – This is where you should focus most of your energy. Find people that have achieved in areas where you wish to achieve. Look for people, who have the type of relationship you want or the type of health you want or have achieved the financial independence you desire and then spend time around them. Observe what they do and over time you will start to act the same way.
These are called associations on purpose. When you consciously spend time around positive energizing influencers, you expand your circle of influence and limit the time you spend with negative influencers.