I felt moved to write again after a while. I want to share some brief thoughts on the significance of who & what you surround yourself with. It has more of an affect on you than you might realize. It's important to assess who you have chosen to surround yourself with and carefully choose who you will surround yourself with from this point forward.
Do you have someone in your life who brings you down somehow? Do you have a choice to be around this person or not? If so, take control over what you do have control over and do not continue to be around this person. If not (e.g., a negative or evil co-worker), it will take some effort, but try not to be around them or the circle they're in as much as possible. Obviously, use your discretion if you feel they're overstepping the usual boundaries and speak up to a supervisor or HR. Btw, if it's your family who is bringing you down, you do have a choice on how often you surround yourself or maintain contact with them. Even though it's often "required" to spend holidays with family, and you don't want to alienate yourself from them, you don't have to be around them any other time if you don't want to and you can choose how much you're going to make them a part of your life.
On the flip side, do you feel no one understands you or shares your passion or beliefs about something? Then you need to seek out those who do. Surrounding yourself with these people can re-affirm and inspire your beliefs and passion.
Another reason to step back and assess who you're surrounding yourself with once in a while is because we all change (ideally) and sometimes, if, in our personal growth and development, we discover that previous beliefs, values, thought patterns or behaviors are no longer serving us well, or are holding us back from becoming the person we want to be, or worse yet, are negatively affecting our mental/emotional well-being, it's a good idea to detach ourselves from certain people who used to share those things. It doesn't have to be an abrupt, negative, "I don't want to be friends with you anymore" kind of detachment. You can just start to seek out and surround yourself more often with others who share your beliefs, values, thought patterns or behaviors.
Assessing who you surround yourself with is a great self improvement/growth/development tool too. Sometimes, when people assess who they're surrounding themselves with, it's like discovering parts of themselves they might not have realized before - like looking in a mirror for the first time. It's a biological/sociological fact that people are attracted to those who are similar to themselves. So, if you realize that your friends are a certain way (for example, shallow and judgemental) you should take a look at yourself and evaluate whether this is the kind of person you really want to be.
Rome Was Not Built By One Person
If you are striving to be a certain kind of person and/or do a certain thing in life, know that you can't do it alone. There is so much power in the encouragement, affirmation, inspiration and strength that friends/acquaintances can give us! I know some people who believe they should be able to achieve great things all by themselves or else there is something wrong with them. They dismiss dreams or passions of doing something just because they don't have all of the skills, knowledge, money or other that it might take to complete. These are all things you can acquire from others if you believe in yourself, your vision and the law of attraction. The only thing that you MUST have is passion. You can surround yourself with others who are doing the same or similar things who will give you encouragement, affirmation, inspiration and strength to follow your passion. You can talk to these people who are successful at doing same/similar things to get the advice/knowledge and skills that you might not have. They can help you figure out what you need to do and you can develop a clear focus of your end goal (the other component needed to allow the law of attraction work). Many successful business people have a business partner who have certain knowledge or skills they themselves don't have. In fact, I just saw an interview with a very successful person who said they wouldn't have been able to excel if they had not focused on one aspect of their business and had spread themselves too thin. Barbara Sher has devoted her life to this teamwork aspect of achieving your dreams. She has a lot of great advice & resources... www.barbarasher.com
Since I love to help people realize and achieve their dreams, my posts seem to always lead to the law of attraction by the end regardless of where they start. :)
To close, I will share with you a piece of advice a wonderful, wise, successful man* recently shared with me: create a binder and fill it with things that are associated with your passion/dream and continue to add things that make you feel good - whether it be clipping out a page in a magazine or newspaper or printing a link/page from the internet or a picture you or someone else has taken.
If anyone tries this, let me know what happens after a little while.
*p.s. I met this wise man at a meeting I just discovered of people who believe anyone can achieve anything they want because of the power of the mind, universe and law of attraction. I have spent my first year in Nashville seeking out like-minded people who were doing or believed in things I wanted. I continue to meet, be recommended to and "coincidentally" discover amazing people whose love, belief, passion and affirmation have helped me continue on my path and get even closer to achieving my dream.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving!
