Hanging around like-minded people is vital to your success!
Show me your friends and I will show you your future!
We have all heard this at least once in our life.
You have probably also heard that you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. Both of these statements are very true and should not be viewed as a cliché people say.
This goes for friends, family, co-workers and anyone else you spend a lot of time with.
Now to clarify when I say like-minded, that doesn’t mean they think exactly like you or that they have your exact same goals.
What I mean is that they too are improving themselves in life and striving to be the best they can be. These people may even be more successful than you are.
Being around successful people and adopting their success habits will help you tremendously in your own journey.
If you are struggling with achieving your goals, there is a great book I highly recommend. It goes into extreme detail telling you the steps to take to achieve your goals. It’s a book by Jack Canfield called The Success Principles. You can get it here on Amazon.
It may be intimidating to hang out with people who have achieved great things. But these are the exact people you need to be around, people who will stretch and strengthen you.
For me when I started to change, dream big, and strive to do the impossible, I could not hang around the same people anymore.
It’s not that they were not good people or that I didn’t care about them, it was just that we no longer had the same interest.
Many of the people I was around were the same as they had been for the past few years. They hadn’t changed in years and although there was nothing wrong with them, I knew I had changed.
You see I didn’t want to remain the same.
My goal is to be a better version of myself than I was the previous year.
And from my experiences, not everyone understands that.
Not everyone can go on your journey with you.
When you start wanting ‘better’ people you thought were friends or even your family members are not going to support you.
Some may even talk about you behind your back and maybe even to your face and say you think you are better than them or try to discourage you from accomplishing your dreams.
I have encountered both types of people and have decided that I only want people around who are for me, people who encourage me, tell me I can do the impossible.
Not people who are okay with me as long as I remain at the same level.
I do not want to be around people who are toxic, negative, or have a victim mentality.
You see I have had some really hard times in my life, and during those times I found out who was truly for me. Who was on my team and loved me unconditionally!
So, I had to make some tough decisions.
I didn’t come right out and say, “I don’t want to be around you anyone.” That is just mean. What I did do was slowly distance myself from people.
I frequently isolate myself anyway when I am going through something, but when I realized certain people were not great for me, I minimized my interactions with them.
Sometimes, it’s not that people are even toxic, it could just be you have nothing in common anymore or that they don’t respect your boundaries.
Whatever it is, here are other reasons why being around like-minded people is critical to your success:
Like-minded people encourage you
Think about a football team. When your favorite team is in the super bowl you want them to win. You cheer them on and are excited when they are crowned champion.
The same is true with your like-minded group. They encourage you and cheer you on to reach your goals. These are the kind of people you want in your inner circle.
You can be yourself around them
Like-minded people get you.
You can be yourself around them.
I remember being around people who were not like-minded years ago and making the mistake of talking about a few of the ambitious goals I was working on.
The response was that of telling me all the reasons why it couldn’t be done or why I didn’t need to do what I was doing. That was when I learned you cannot share big dream with small minds.
Likewise, when I am around my inner circle, I can truly be myself and talk about things that are important to me.
They push you to accomplish your goals
People who are for you will push you to accomplish your goals.
My biggest supporter is my husband.
When I sometimes lack confidence and don’t think I can do something, he reminds me that I can. He helps me snap out of it when I get into pity party mode.
In that moment, I am also reminded of the scripture that says I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
Many times, he has believed in me more than I have in myself, encouraging me to never quit or give up.
That encouragement has led me to accomplish great things.
You can learn from them
I love learning from super-successful people who have accomplished great things in life that I myself want to accomplish or have a skill that I myself need to learn.
I have a friend who is really organized and great at managing her time. Being around her and adopting some of those great habits helped me to become super organized and better with my time management.
I also learn a lot from reading books.
You can learn anything from a book or google search.
Like-minded people hold you accountable
Having an accountability partner is a great way to stay on track when you are working towards your goals.
If you say you are working out 5 days a week, eating a healthier diet, or getting out of debt, your accountability partner will call you out when you get off course.
This may be just what you need to stay committed to your goals.
How has your inner circle been critical to your success? Share in the comments below.