There have been a lot of books written on the topic of thinking, which I believe is an ultra important topic. Can we stop for a moment though and assess what influences our thinking. One word comes to mind and that’s input.
Zig Ziglar has a great quote that puts this into perspective. “When we change the input into our minds, we change the output into our lives”. What we live out in our lives is directly connected to the input we allow in. That is something worth taking note of.
I have found that there are many ways we get influenced by input, but today I would like to focus on one, and that’s association. Association plays such a big role in our lives which is why we need to make sure that we control it, and it doesn’t control us.
Your association has everything to do with people. I believe as humans we are created to be relational beings and we have a deep desire to be connected with others. People play a huge part in our lives and for that reason we need to choose our association wisely. Jim Rohn’s reminder to us “you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with”, is an attention grabber for me. You are who you hang around with.
I’m also reminded of a wise passage from 1 Corinthians “Bad company corrupts good character”. You see there are two sides to association and like in many things it comes in the shape of positive and negative influences. If bad company corrupts good character, the cost is too high to pay if we don’t watch the crowd we hang with.
Yes, there are people we work with and strangers we interact with that are not necessarily by choice, but we still have the choice on whether we let them speak into our lives. For those people we have in our lives like family, you still have choice. A conversation for another time but have healthy boundaries in place.
So, who do you learn from? Who is your mentor? Someone once said show me your mentor and I’ll show you your future. So choose your mentor wisely. You are going to listen to someone, why not choose people you respect, people who have gone before you, who have experience and wisdom and most importantly align with your values.
Your association has many implications, but let’s not buy into the lie that we have no choice. Be on purpose, surround yourself with people that inspire you, believe in you and help you win. Let’s be known for the company we keep.
Grow as you go!
Walter Perez – Founder/CEO – The Leader Co. Inc.