Friends: Pathway to greatness, bridge to oblivion

Photo Credit: Dgreetings

By Chiamaka AJeamo

I believe so much in friendships and how much it can influence one’s life in various aspects.  This is because I see friends as people who face the same directions, who have similar interests, goals and work towards common projects in life. Trust me; influence can take place consciously or unconsciously. Sometimes, we get to notice this influence or influences ourselves while other times, others get to see it for us. This is why you can hear some people say to you “you are behaving or acting like Charity or Charles”.

When you start hanging out with a particular friend or clique of friends, it is a must their influence rubs off on you. Remember that adage “show me your friend and I will tell you who you are”? Is a valid one and should never be ignored when making friends.

Our success in life more often than not springs down to the people we choose to spend our time with. Yes! How brilliant, smart, talented or intelligent you are, your family background or where you were bred surely, have some roles to play as to how successful you will become in life but it can never be compared to the impact friends make. Why? You may ask.

Our success in life more often than not springs down to the people we choose to spend our time with.

It is because you spend more time with friends. When you have a problem your friend knows about it, when you are in love, he or she knows, you get to share your dreams and aspirations with him or her too. When you get to share these information with friends, they get to influence your pattern of thought and overtime you see yourself having the same mindset to issues of life.

We become more like the people we hang out with. This gives credence to the quote of Jim Rohn “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” Who are your friends? Do they elevate you or bring you down? Do they motivate or drain you? Are they people who have similar interests and goals as you? Are they proactive go-getters who possess qualities that you admire or friends who just sit and criticize everything they come in contact with? Take a moment to reflect on these questions.

The wonderful thing about being around positive minded friends, who have a habit of pursing their dreams and believe in taking responsibility for their lives, is that you will be inclined to grow in such positive direction as well. These kinds of friends will have a great impact on your reasoning and consequently, your behavior. They will support and always push you towards achieving your dreams.

So, if you want to be successful, surround yourself with such people. You want to be healthy? Surround yourself with healthy people. You want to be happy? Surround yourself with happy people. You want to be more confident about yourself? Move with confident people. Spend quality time with these people and maximize the time too.

“Associate only with positive, focused people who you can learn from and who will not drain your valuable energy with uninspiring attitudes. By developing relationships with those committed to constant improvement and the pursuit of the best that life has to offer, you will have plenty company on your path to the top of whatever mountain you seek to climb.”- Robin Sharma.

It is a new day, a new week, a fresh start, choose to spend it with people who speak hope and life and will impact your life positively. Have a great week!