06 You are the Average of the People you Spend Time with

You are the average of the top five people you spend time with. Wow. What? How is that so?

The law of averages applies to all areas of your life. The law of averages states that the result of any situation is the average of the outcomes.

Think about it. If you want to be better at a sport, or a subject, or skill, do you spend time with people who are worse or better at that trait than you? Better. And the more you spend time with them, the better you get at the skill. Conversely, if you continue to spend time with those who don’t challenge you at the trait, you will remain the same or get worse.

Now take some time to think about who those people are for you. Of course some of that time you don’t have control over based on obligations, both personally and professionally, so first focus on your free time.

Those around you are either helping you towards or deterring you from who you want to become and what you want to achieve. The people around you will impact your thinking, your self esteem and your decisions.

Be careful of too much support and not enough criticism, or too much criticism and not enough support. Both will have an impact on your outlook on yourself and how you apply yourself to your goals.

Yes, there is a time and place for everything and not every second needs to be spent working towards a goal, however allocating that time is important if you want to be intentional with who you are. That means maybe not happy hour two times a week, maybe only once every other week, or not drinking both weekend nights, or setting time limits to hanging with certain people.

Same as our other goals and habits, sustainable change happens with a lot of small decisions and habitual behavior. How can you pull yourself away from negative people? How can you spend more time with positive people that give you good energy?

Keep your who, your true intentions at your core and think about those that are supporting you in those beliefs. You have all that you need to succeed. Now surround yourself with those who will help you reach that potential.