My positive friends: Sakada Buth, Jason Carter, Jamie Martin, Chris Stub, Andrea Penski, Eric Johnson
Take a look at your savings account. If you lost your job, is there enough money in there to last you three months? After all of the credit card bills, the rent, mortgage, cell phone bills, gas, car payment, insurance, etc, can you survive for 3 months?
Someone once told me this story. I don’t really remember too many of the details but here is what I do remember:
A multi-millionaire went up to a personal development coach very frustrated. “I don’t understand! No matter what I do, I simply can not become a billionaire. I know that you should only associate with successful people so I only associate with other multi-millionaires. I work harder than I ever have; yet, I still haven’t been able to do it.”
The coach looked at him, and with a smile he said, “The answer is simple, you are associating with the wrong crowd. To become a billionaire, you must only associate with billionaires. Spending time with people who are at the same level as you does not challenge you to grow.”
Your bank account is a direct reflection of your 10 closest friends. Take the average amount of money they are making and that is most likely what you are making. It’s time to take an unbiased, reflective look at your 10 closest friends. Do any of them have the type of money, the success, the future, the goal-oriented mindset that you want? If not, you have to realize, no matter how painful it is, that your friends are hurting you more than helping you.
This is a hard lesson that I learned myself. Without even realizing it, I began to associate myself with people who were less successful than me. As a result, two things happened, I felt better about myself because I was comparing myself to those who were less successful than me, and in doing so things got worse because I was surrounding myself with people who wouldn’t challenge me to become a better person. I have since surrounded myself with like-minded individuals. People who have a direction in life and are successful in all aspects of life: spiritually (not necessarily religious), personally, and professionally.
Now follow these steps:
- Make a list of your 10 closest friends
- Next to their name, add a -1 if they are less successful than you, a 0 if they are the same, and +1 if they are more successful
- Do the same thing evaluating their desire to better themselves, willingness to help others, commitment to their promises, amount of support they give you, what your parents would think (I know this sounds strange, but trust me on this), and finally their loyalty.
- Add up all the numbers.
- Time for the hard part, take a look at the people who scored 0 or less and forget the fact that you have known each other since 1st grade or any other emotions. Do they really positively impact your life? Do they challenge you to become a better person and support you and your goals?
It’s time to start a new Top 10 friends list, and the first to be added to that list is everyone who scored greater than 1! Good luck, your future self will thank you.