Changing Your Circle Can Change Your Life
“You are who you hang around.”
Our life starts when we meet people outside our families. Your family is like your safe haven (sometimes). You meet these people from the moment you leave your mother’s womb in the hospital. Growing up with three siblings, was super fun. Your siblings are the first real friends you gain in life. They’re the first people you laugh with, play with, sit and have your first actual conversation with. And of course the occasional fights, haha. Your siblings are the friends you don’t get to choose in life.
And then we become school age.
Think about the first friend you made when you entered grade school. So innocent and fun, right? We’re 5 years old, finally meeting other souls outside our immediate family. Life becomes interesting at this point. You can’t wait to return to school the next day to have lunch with your new friend and talk about the recent Teletubbies episode you saw. Haha.
Fast-forward to the age we become who we will be. It is said that the first 7 years of our lives are the most crucial in our child development years. Our rapidly growing brain lies down a sturdy foundation for how we communicate and interact with the world by processing how we’re being responded to. At the age of 7, we can make deeper meaning of the information that surrounds us. We begin to speak metaphorically, reflecting our ability to think more broadly. Our friendships are still innocent and fun around this age, but we begin to process what a good or bad friend is.
Growing up, I remember my mother spurring the saying, “You are who you hang around.” I guess it was to keep my siblings and me from hanging around the bad kids in school. Who knows. It’s stuck with me forever. I feel like it’s embedded in my subconscious mind at this point.
Do I believe it?
Yes, and no. I’ve seen people hang around drug abusers and had no desire to do drugs. I’ve seen alcoholics hang around people who have never had a drink before. The choice is yours.
Yet, I truly believe that when it comes to your future, goals, and dreams… It matters 100% who you hang around. In high school, we start to make decisions about the friends we choose to be around. You’re more so gravitating towards people with similar interests as you. Rather than when we become adults entering the working world starting families of our own, we have the freedom to decide on whom we want around us at all times.
If you hang around five confident people, you will be the sixth.
If you hang around five millionaires, you will be the sixth.
If you hang around five broke people, you will be the sixth.
In other words, you become like the five people you spend the most time with.
It is very hard to cut ties or distance yourself from friends you’ve known for years. But there comes a point in some of our lives where we grow and try to make sense of what’s happening around us, and the people we call friends. We yearn for happiness, love, and success. But how do you reach your full potential doing the same thing you were doing 10 years ago with the same people?.. It’s impossible.
You can change your life by changing your circle. Change who you consider a friend, the conversations you engage in, and old bad habits that got you nowhere.
Choosing to be around people that inspire you, encourage you, and guide you is important. We get caught up in these party friendships that consist of nothing but partying. No real conversations, just shots of Tequila. Those people you consider friends are usually acquaintances.
It all comes down to whom you choose to be in your circle.
They say it gets lonely at the top.
Keep striving for greatness.
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