Stay away from friends who poison your mind and your soul.

In my life time, I get to meet many people who desire to make a change in their life; emotionally, mentally, physically and professionally.  For example, they get themselves to stop smoking, change their eating habits, spending patterns or even be more serious in studies as well.
However, to some of the people, the change was not sustainable. They would go back to their life and practice what they had learnt. But after a while, they would lose their focus and motivation and revert to their old limiting behaviours. Sometimes, they would not continue to apply and master the new skills they had learnt.
 At first, I could never understand why they did not continue to do what was needed to be done, to achieve what they desired so much. They had the goals and the skills. So, what was stopping them from going for it?


If You Want to Change Your Life, Begin By Changing Your Friends
After some time, I have come to realize that there is a powerful force that influences the way we behave on a consistent basis. This force shapes our beliefs, attitudes, values and life standards. It is the force of the people we choose to surround ourselves with. We can do our very best to make a change in our lives but unless we change the people we surround ourselves with, any change we make will not last. Many people fail to make a sustainable change in their life because the people they spend time with pull them in the opposite direction that they want to go to. Friends do affect you.


Friends Affect Us and Infect Us
Why are our peers such a strong influence on our behaviours? As human beings, we are creatures of conformity. We are hard-wired with the emotional need to be accepted by the people around us. And the same time, we fear rejection. To feel connected and accepted in a group, there is a tendency for us to think and act like the people in that group. Ultimately, people like people who are like themselves.
Have you ever noticed that you tend to talk and act differently when you are amongst different groups of people? All of us have different groups of friends from different social circles. For example, I have got high school's friends, university's friends and family friends.


Your Friends Affect Your Success
If friends have such a strong influence on us, we have to be very careful with who we choose to spend out time with. Whether we like it or not, our friends affect how successful we will become in our studies, relationships, careers and even our health.

I believe that we should mix around with all kinds of people from different socio-economic backgrounds, races and religions. It opens our minds and teaches us to be more understanding, compassionate and tolerant of others. There is always something we can learn from anybody, regardless of their age and experiences.
At the same time, we should consciously be aware of how much time we are spending with each group of people. Hanging around certain friends may be fun, but we should be mindful not too spend all our time with people who may subconsciously hold us back from where we want to go.


If You Want to Be a Winner, Be With Winners
Simply put, be around people who you want to be more like. If you want to be happy, hang around with happy people. If you want to become good in studies, spend time with academically successful people.
If you want to be more successful, develop relationships with people who are driven to achieve.




P/S; Let me know what you think of this post. The feedback will be very helpful to figure out about my thoughts and principle of life.
Stay away from friends who poison your mind and your soul. Instead, spend time with people who inspire you to be a better person in future.