6/29: REPUTATION
This week in class, one of our members was talking to me about a family that lives in Arizona but spends the summer in MI. When they first started coming to MI, they trained over the summer at the first gym I ran with a partner. Over time, they decided to switch gyms because of a particular policy that they didn’t like. It was a policy that I did not like as well, but it was one that my partner insisted upon. Since they almost exclusively trained on the days my partner was not there, that policy naturally got associated with me. I was happy to hear that recently they were informed it was not only a policy I didn’t enact, it was one I didn’t like, and one I eliminated when I opened GB Northville. By simply being in that environment though, this negativity was attached to me.
Who we hang around matters. I believe it was in the book “Think and Grow Rich” that mentioned you will most likely be earning about the same amount of money as your 5 closest friends. Think about how that could affect your life. Need a better financial situation? Well, you could start by simply hanging around the most successful people you know. Eventually, that lifestyle and decision making will start to impact your situation. But, it’s not just your financial situation that will be about the same as your 5 closest friends, it will be EVERYTHING about your life; your morals and ethics, your drive, your faith, your perspectives…….everything will start to match the people you associate with most.
It’s not magic. It’s simply that people are social animals and we will simply start to follow the behaviors of the people we hang out with most, whether we realize it or not. Steve Harvey talked about this on one of his stand-up routines. Once he started making it big, he got out of the hood and started to associate himself with other successful people. He said his friends at the time were very annoyed that he was leaving them behind, but he knew they were going to keep trying to drag him down to their level because failure simply hates success. When failure sees success, it has 2 options: rise up to meet success or drag success down to failure’s level. Remember, everything around you is seeking to find that average. One success is going to have a hard time raising 4 failures.
This is not to say you should abandon those that stood by you in the tough times, but what Steve knew was that success and growth requires a different mindset than the mindset that is stuck in the same static cycles. Growth and development need like-minded people. That is one of the primary messages of churches that many people miss. Church is simply a way to associate with like minded people to strengthen your own personal journey of faith.
I have spent the last couple years clearing out the people in my life that had been dragging me down and being a physical and emotional drain on my energy. I didn’t realize how much it had been impacting me until those people were gone. You are the average of those around you. These can be difficult decisions, because the people you need to clear out of your life are most likely going to be people you were very close with at some point, family, friends, co-workers, and teammates. While the process of clearing those people from my life was stressful and difficult, I can tell you the light on the other side of that process has been absolutely worth it. Probably the most important part of the process, but also the most difficult, is to eventually forgive those people for any damage they may have caused you. Carrying around that animosity is no way to go through life. I’m not saying I’m the best at this by any stretch of the imagination, but I can certainly attest to how that negativity will drag you down.
Who you hang around with matters. Take this very seriously. It reflects on every aspect of your life. Be bold and live your life the best possible way. Have the courage to let go of people that don’t have your best interests in mind. We get one shot at this life. Make it the best it can be by associating with the best people you can find.
