Do not be misled. Bad company ruins character.
(1 Corinthians 15:33, The Bible: An American Translation, 1931).
If you are reading this blog, chances are that you have a goal you are working to achieve. If so, congratulations. It takes a special kind of determination to begin actively pursuing a goal.
Over time you may have noticed that your progress has slowed
if not stopped completely. Or perhaps you want to start working on your goal
but you have yet to begin.
If this is the case, you may be thinking that the problem is with you. You aren’t dedicated enough or you don’t have enough time. Perhaps you think that you were just born to be a failure.
Before you castigate yourself any further, take a look at
the company you keep.
The people we surround ourselves with directly influence who
we are and what we are becoming. In fact,
“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” Jim Rohn.
If your goal is to get in shape but your best friend is a couch potato, guess what is going to happen? Instead of hanging out at the gym doing squats, you’ll end up camping out on the couch with them watching workout videos.
If your goal is to conserve money and build wealth but your
friends are perpetually broke spendthrifts, you’ll spend your time at the mall.
If you goal is to declutter your home but your best friend
is a hoarder guess what? Your house will never become clean and tidy.
There is a reason for this. Your friends may like the life
they lead. They may enjoy doing the things that you no longer want to do. If a
clutterbug sees you cleaning your house, for instance, they may take it
(consciously or unconsciously) as a judgement against their personal lifestyle
choices. So deep down they aren’t going to want you to clean your home. They may
not want you to improve your finances, get in shape, or go back to school.
While they may encourage you to your face, deep down they want you to fail.
If you fail, they become justified because they never tried.
If you fail, you will be just like them. If you fail, they will gain the
opportunity to pretend to sympathize with you while they cheer inwardly.
They want you to fail because it will justify their personal
failures. They will do whatever it takes to secretly derail your success.
If you have a person like that in your life, run. Unfriend them on Facebook. Block
their phone number. Send their emails to the junk folder and avoid them at all
costs. I don’t care if you’ve known them since preschool. It doesn’t matter if
they promise to always “have your back.” Their secret goal is to keep
you down at their level and they will do whatever it takes to make that happen.
I have had to do this two times in my life. Both were friends I’d had since childhood. Many years ago, the first friend decided to go ballistic after I began making some changes to my life. I dealt with their drama for ages as I tried to figure out why my writing business was spluttering.
Within months of eliminating that person from my life, I was earning enough from my writing to quit my day job. I hadn’t even realized that they were sabotaging things until years later but in hindsight the negative comments, the drama they invariably started whenever I began working on a new blog post or a book, and their insistence that I was “working too hard” formed into a barrier that was impossible to overcome until I cut them out of my life.
I recently noticed a similar pattern with another longstanding friendship. The more I worked towards my goals, the more concerned they became. “You need to stop working so hard!” They stated repeatedly. They seemed determined to keep me chatting for hours online to the point where I would have to ignore them when I was working. When I would ignore their texts, they would show up at my job since they were “in the area” around my quitting time. It would take 30 minutes to an hour to escape their litany of complaints.
I tolerated the situation. They were my friend, I reasoned.
But then I pounced upon the opportunity to go to college.
This person immediately began a series of rants concerning the subject. An unrelated rant left me with the distinct impression that they wanted me to cancel my plans to attend college since they weren’t willing or able to go as well.
I thought I was being paranoid but as the evidence continued to mount over the next few weeks I took a few days away from the friendship to clear my head.
The peace I felt was immense. I had not realized how much
stress this person was adding to my life until it was gone. The difference was
noticeable enough that others began to comment on my change in mood.
That helped me to realize just how unhealthy the friendship
had become.
As I considered the person I want to become I realized that this was not a person I would choose to associate with in my future life. Even sadder, I realized that if I were to meet a complete stranger that was exactly like my friend tomorrow that I would want nothing to do with them or their chosen lifestyle.
I realized that the only thing we had in common any more was
the time we had known each other.
It is a hard thing to lose a friend; harder still when you have to actively purge them from your life. Even so, as one must prune the diseased branches from a tree so it can flourish, we must prune away our toxic relationships if we want to grow.
Before you go to bed tonight, think about the company you
keep. Do you see yourself wanting to associate with them once you reach your
goals? Do they show any indications of trying to sabotage your progress through
discouragement or distraction?
Do they live the life you want to live, or the life you’re
leaving behind?
Do what you have to do.
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Much thanks to John Grebe, author of Pray As You Can: Exploring The Diverse Nature of Christian Prayer. His donation of Bibles to my private collection helped immensely as I came to a decision in the situation described above. I received a copy of his book some time ago and I found his thoughts on prayer immensely refreshing.
REFERENCES
Maarten van Doorn. (2018). You Are The Average Of The Five People You Spend The Most Time With.
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