Are you happy or unhappy?
Are you successful or struggling?
Are you upbeat, positive and enthusiastic about your life?
Or, are you too often pessimistic and down about your life?
Who you associate with on a regular basis determines the circumstances of your life.
The average person unconsciously chooses their friends, their boss, their spouse or their significant other. They unknowingly seek out individuals who they feel comfortable with and then they wind up surrounding themselves with those similar people. Their associations all have similar habits, similar mental outlooks, a similar work ethic, and many other shared traits.
It’s the birds of a feather flock together maxim. And, as I said, for the average individual, it’s all happening unconsciously.
In my extensive research for my book Change Your Habits Change Your Life, I found that one of the hallmarks of wealthy, successful people was their ability to somehow break free of this human tendency to unconsciously forge relationships with others.
According to my Rich Habits research, the self-made rich, long before they became rich, made an intentional, conscious effort to only forge relationships with individuals they aspired to be – other rich and successful people.
The poor, conversely, unconsciously forged relationships with other poor people.
But, there’s no need to blindly forge relationships that drag you down in life. You can choose those relationships that will lift you up and you can choose to avoid those relationships that drag you down.
You can choose to be rich, by choosing who you associate with.
In order for you to know who to associate with, however, you must first know what to look for.
Rich Relationship have one or more of the following traits:
- Good Habits
- Positive Mental Outlook
- Trustworthy
- Encouraging Attitude
- Fanatic Loyalty
- Financially Stability
- Hard Work Ethic
- Individual Accountability
- Strong Willpower & Discipline
- Passionate & Enthusiastic
- Grateful
Toxic Relationships have one or more of the following traits:
- Bad Habits
- Negative Outlook
- Deceptive & Untrustworthy
- Critical of Everything
- Backstabbers & Disloyal
- Financial Train Wrecks
- Lazy Work Ethic
- Victim Mindset
- Addicted to Something
- Ungrateful Complainers
- Blame-Throwers
With practice, you will become self aware of the pluses and minuses in every individual you come into contact with. If your life dream is to become rich and successful, this awareness will make it easier for you to identify who you should associate with and who you should avoid.
Rich Relationships infect you with their good habits, positive mindset and enthusiasm. They open closed doors for you. You will find your life circumstances improve as you spend more time with them.
Toxic Relationships will also infect you. They will infect you with their bad habits, negative mindset and their doom and gloom outlook on life. The more time you spend with them, the more they will infect you, dragging you down in the process.
I have heard this from Les Brown, “If you run around with 9 broke people, you will become number ten!” This is exactly what you are talking about in this article, but you went one better to list down somethings we should look out for and which to avoid. One question, Tom. Do you know of any self made millionaires who started from a toxic environment? How did they get out and make it? Thanks
Ben Carson – his dad was MIA during most of his life.
Mike Tyson – his dad was MIA and his mom was a prostitute.
Woody Harrelson – his dad was a contract killer.
Kelsey Grammer – his entire family was murdered.
Dylan McDermott – he was born to the teenage girlfriend of a gangster named John Sponza.
Oprah Winfrey – her broken family was so poor they didn’t have running water and she was sexually abused at age 9.
Larry Ellison – was raised by his great-aunt and great-uncle.
Thanks Tom. I have only heard of Mike Tyson, hence it will provide and abundant list of people to research and learn from.
Cheers