Your Associations + Your Environment = Your Destiny
Show me who you hang around and where, and I'll show you your future.
Note: For information purposes only. Not intended as personalized advice of any sort. Please consult a qualified professional.
From Steve Harvey - You have to expose yourself to better things if you ever hope to achieve them:
You can reprogram your mind your victory, for a better life than what you have had before, starting with changing your surroundings and associations. Proverbs 13:20 (MEV) says "He who walks with wise men will be wise, but a companion of fools will be destroyed." The Amplified Bible (AMP) says "He who walks [as a companion] with wise men will be wise, But the companions of [conceited, dull-witted] fools [are fools themselves and] will experience harm." The Good News Translation (GNT) puts it very bluntly: "Keep company with the wise and you will become wise. If you make friends with stupid people, you will be ruined."
We’ve written about this before, here at Escape From The West. If you want to be happier, more successful, stronger in your faith, then start hanging around happy, successful, faithful people. Make them your mentors, become their student, watch and learn what they do and teach you. All it takes to get started is to get moving, and the courage to ask. You'd be amazed how many people love to teach and mentor others in what they do, and how freely they are willing to give of their time. All you have to do is ask. The worst they can say is "No."
"Recognize the fortunate so that you may choose their company, and the unfortunate so that you may avoid them. Misfortune is usually the crime of folly, and among those who suffer from it there is no malady more contagious: Never open your door to the least of misfortunes, for, if you do, many others will follow in its train... Do not die of another's misery." -Baltasar Gracian
If you want to be in a better environment, one that is more prosperous, faithful, healthy, positive, nurturing, successful, peaceful, and free, then get up and go there. If you're not sure where "there" is, then get up and go find it. But YOU have to get up and take the required action. No one is going to do it for you, and no one is going to bring it to you on a silver platter.
When you surround yourself with people, places, and things of positivity, prosperity, faith, strength, health, freedom, joy, and peace, you'll find yourself attracting more of the same. But if you remain around people, places, and things of negativity, lack, want, weakness, poverty, abuse, mediocrity, and faithlessness, you'll attract more of that in your life.
"You can die from someone else's misery—emotional states are as infectious as diseases. You may feel you are helping the drowning man but you are only precipitating your own disaster. The unfortunate sometimes draw misfortune on themselves; they will also draw it on you. Associate with the happy and fortunate instead." -Robert Greene, "The 48 Laws of Power," Law 10: "Infection: Avoid the Unhappy and Unlucky"
Make the conscious, quality decision today to walk with the wise, and surround yourself with better. Then pass on the blessing, by offering a hand up to others, through an opportunity to teach and mentor them on how you did it, and how they can too.
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