5 Reasons to Choose Your Friends Carefully
// August 18th, 2008 // No Comments » // relationships
“It is better to be in chains with friends, than to be in a garden with strangers.” -Persian Proverb
The people that you surround yourself with will have a large influence on the person you are. You most value your friend’s opinion over others. This means that you should choose your friends wisely, because they can be the reason that you succeed or fail.
1. Friends influence you
When you are having a fun time with your friends, then your mood will improve. Similarly, if your friends are making remarks that make you feel bad then your mood will decline. You cannot be happy if you are surrounding yourself with negative people. Find people that make you feel good, otherwise you will be sabotaging yourself. Friends should always be fun to be around. I am sure most people don’t make friends with people that they dislike and make them purposefully feel bad, but having a friend that is always bringing you down will achieve the same changes in mood. You could be having a great time until this friend brings the mood down with a negative comment or action. They might be fun to be around a lot of the time, but it isn’t worth the other part of the time that you don’t enjoy being around them.
2. Build you up for success
I cannot describe the great feeling I get when a friend really tries to encourage me. I feel like I can achieve anything if I have enough people behind me. Friends should be able to back you up, because if you have their support then you can have a higher chance of success. Friends that bring you down will only hurt your chances of success. You have to have confidence in your friends to know that they will support you no matter how crazy your idea is; however they should only try to discourage you if the idea might end up bad. Sometimes friends can be that push to make that transformation in life that you need. They could push you into getting into exercise by commenting how great you look after exercising. The positive reinforcement will do wonders for you to reach for your goals.
3. The wrong friends can be counterproductive
A toxic friend can cause far more harm than good. Friends that make negative comments about your dreams will only succeed in making you have to work harder. No one is good at achieving their goals if a little voice continually remarks that the idea is horrible and you can’t succeed. The same is true if you continue to think you will fail, then the chances rise that you will. They might mean well because they don’t want you to get your hopes up, but this isn’t a good enough reason to bring you down. You fail if you never try, so you cannot know until you try. Do you have any friends that sit back and criticize while you attempt to push forward?
4. A little caring goes a long way
You can’t help but smile when a friend asks how a goal is coming. You know that someone is interested in the things that you do. Your friends should be your cheerleaders, because their opinions matter to you. When they make an effort to take interest this gives you a little support. The best kind of friend will not only inquire about your goals, but will help you with it. They might just give you new ideas to wake up early, or they might come over nightly to make sure you are sticking to your new diet. They do what they can to help you, and you should do the same for you.
5. Friends can be examples for you
If you see your friend starting a workout schedule and sticking to you, then you might get the needed push to start your own. Friends provide great motivations to achieving your own dreams. You might see how much happier your friend is when they focus on <a href=”http://www.philiplilly.com/blog/2008/08/14/live-in-each-moment/” > living in the moment</a> or how much more productive they are when following a schedule. I know that friend’s actions will influence my future actions. This can be a bad thing also. If your friends do nothing but drink on weekends, then you are more likely to drink with them. Their habits will influence your habits, for better or worse.
I know that I have to look around at my friends from time to time. Some of them mean the world to mean, but they sometimes bring down my goals. I need to surround myself with more people that are like me and want to achieve more out of their life, because they will motivate me and I will hopefully give motivation to them. Consider yourself lucky if you already have friends that will support you and even participate in your dreams. A friend can just sit on the sidelines and cheer for you, but a great friend is out there with you, running next to you as create a habit of running or lost in a foreign city as you backpack through Europe. Look around at your friends and be happy with each one to the fullest potential.
