Can you afford your friends?
Not to be cruel or anything, but the people you hang out with might be preventing you from acheiving success.It is a well-accepted fact that you can catch a cold from someone with a cold.
We are always careful to tell our children not to get involved with a "bad crowd".
But what about our friends? Here is an exercise for you. Take out a piece of paper and write down the names of your five closest friends. Next to their names, write down their annual incomes. Add those numbers up and divide by five. It is almost a certainty that your annual income will be within 10% of that average.
Why?
It is because a major part of how we see ourselves, our self-image, is defined by who we associate with. We tend to gravitate to people with similar personalities, values, income and opinions as those we hold ourselves. As a result, we attract the same financial assets they have, the same financial habits they have and the same financial results as they have.
We catch their cold!
I am not saying your friends wish you ill. In fact, their intentions towards you are good. They wish you well and that you have success.
Why don't we associate with people that have more success than us? Because it is a difficult thing to do. Finding a mentor is not easy. It is said, "Money is easy to get, health is a bit harder, but finding mentorship is almost impossible." But it is vital to your success.
Albert Einstein said, "The world that we have made is a result of the level of thinking we have thus far. It creates problems that we cannot solve at the same level of thinking at which we created them." What you are and what you have reflects what you have thought and what you have done. To change our level of thinking we need to seek out those that operate on that higher level.
You need to protect what you think about. Focus on what you need to move to the next level of thought. Seek out and meet people that have what you want. Read books written by people you aspire to be like.
Find a mentor or coach that will tell you stuff your friends won't. What you are told will be hard to accept, but the results will appear like magic.
Think of it as cold medication.
posted by Paul Maclauchlan @ 2:55 PM
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