Tweet

Choose Your Friends Wisely

Written by: Eva Gregory

Article Overview: As individuals concerned about quality of life and the environment, I am sure that you frequently consider how the environment affects your well-being. Asking questions about what is being spewed into the air that is breathed, dumped into the water what is drunk, or absorbed into the food that is eaten has become commonplace. What about your social environment? It has just as much of an impact on your life, and in most cases the effects are more readily felt than those of what we consider to be the outside environment.

Choose Your Friends Wisely

As individuals concerned about quality of life and the environment, I am sure that you frequently consider how the environment affects your well-being. Asking questions about what is being spewed into the air that is breathed, dumped into the water what is drunk, or absorbed into the food that is eaten has become commonplace. What about your social environment? It has just as much of an impact on your life, and in most cases the effects are more readily felt than those of what we consider to be the outside environment.

The people that interact with you on a daily basis - friends, colleagues, significant others and family members all play principal roles in your life. While it is impossible to choose who all of your colleagues are (even if you own your own business), and you definitely cannot choose your family members (as much as we may wish on occasion), you CAN choose your friends and significant others (as they typically start out as friends first). Take a look at those people that you consider to be friends. Do you honestly feel like you have built a community of supportive fulfilling relationships? Or does your list of friends resemble a patchwork quilt, because the relationships just developed and were not nurtured or deliberately created.
Now, I hear you thinking "I like my friends. Why would I want to deliberately look for friends, anyway?" The answer is, because the type of people that you spend time with is a direct reflection of who you are, what you feel and what you do. If you hang out with people that are always broke, never happy or satisfied, constantly complaining, or always playing the victim, their situations will affect you. How can their situations be reflected in your life? If you are a true friend you will at least feel sad for your friend and it will make you sad. In other situations, you can actually find their emotions, beliefs, and actions being reflected in YOUR life as well. Tim can illustrate this point nicely.

Tim has had the same group of three friends since high school. They are all twenty-five years old, but Tim is currently the only one of them that is employed. He is an Assistant Manager at a sporting goods store. He often hears his friends complain about the lack of opportunity because of the state of the economy, how unfair life is because you cannot get ahead without a college education, but that with one, the job market is still saturated, and how they can never find decent dates. Tim had been considering returning to college but changed his mind right before the start of the new semester. His girlfriend was so upset that she broke up with him and told him that he was never going to get ahead if he continued to associate with his "loser" friends. Tim now has the chance to become Manager of his store. Want to bet that his friends will find some way to put a negative spin on it for him? Tim is clearly being affected by the attitudes and beliefs of his friends. In fact, they are the epitome of negativity and have adversely impacted his life.

If Tim had put careful thought and emphasis in choosing his friends, his scenario may actually look more like this. Tim and his girlfriend meet his friends after work. He tells them that he is being considered for a promotion, but that he has a problem because he is also attending school. They brainstorm a bit, realizing that this is a fantastic opportunity for him and come up with a brilliant plan. They suggest that Tim contact the school and see if his work experience could be applied towards college credit and then meet with his regional manager to determine if he would be willing to mentor Tim as a Co-Op student. What a difference! The type of people that Tim considers as friends has dramatically changed the course of his life with a single interaction. Imagine the affect that this could have over a number of years!

So how does one build a community of fulfilling relationships? Begin by looking for people that share things in common with you, or possess those qualities that you would like to nurture within yourself. People that have similar interests, hobbies, lifestyles, goals, or personalities are a great place to start. Once you begin meeting people, evaluate how they react to their environment. If you react similarly, or you find their reaction positive - I dare say you might have a winner. If you do this a few times, you will find yourself surrounded with like-minded people that you will feel truly connected with.

There is nothing wrong with looking to maximize the number of positive interactions that can occur each day. If you and your friends can nurture each other and improve the quality of each others lives, only good things can come of this. How many times during childhood and adolescence did you hear that you should, "choose your friends wisely"? Imagine That! The adults ACTUALLY knew what they were talking about after all!

Related Articles
  Career Stock Raising
  Leadership Tips - Leaders Make Use of Mess to Germinate New Solutions
  Are You Exercising Your Right to Choose?
  Gossip
  A New Kind of Networking for Recessionary Times

Article Tags: commonplace, quality of life, social environment, wellbeing



Related Forum Posts
Re: pitching - Friendliness is closely related to the concept of "permission marketing" as articulated by Seth Godin. The subtitle of his book says it all: "Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers into Friends and Friends into Customers." The old method was "interruption marketing" where you suddenly get an ad in your face whether you want it or not...
Maze Inc - Greetings Friends,
Re: How do you budget your life? - Here is my financial management categories for today: 15% Long Term Savings; 10% Home Expenses; 45% Business and Marketing charges; 10% Friends (Meeting); 20$ Scientific and Law Books. But this will change when it is August or September. Orxan
Re: Is being too connected pushing your business forward or back - The problem with social media sites is that you can't just submit more and more links. you need to have friends, and build a social community, this way your friend may become customers, or their friends will be. Friends take time, online and offline. there is no automation to this process.
Favourite Business Books - The November PROFIT magazine looks at the favourite business books of Canada's most successful entrepreneurs. The top 4 are: 1) Good to Great by Jim Collins 2) The E-Myth by Michael Gerber 3) Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne 4) How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

The Future of Online Marketing

10 Steps to Excelling at Franchise Sales

Online Business Ideas: A Look At Various Options

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.