If you want to become good at a particular niche, it’s always good idea to surround yourself with people who are already good at it. If you want to be a painter, it’s good idea to surround yourself with people who paint. If you want to progress at certain type of belief, it’s good to surround yourself with people who already hold that particular belief.
I used to hang out with random people every time and do whatever I liked. I didn’t notice that I used to get influenced by them. If I was hanging out with football players, I’d be interested in football. If I was hanging out with guitarist, I used to learn to play guitar. If I was hanging out with party freaks, I used to be interested in parties. on and on…….
I was influenced by people who was near to me.
Whenever I’m with my photographer friend, I’m automatically interested in photography.
I never thought this would have such an impact in my life.
I realized this phenomenon and stopped hanging around people I didn’t want to emulate.
For example: If I wasn’t interested in parties, I would stop hanging around with party freaks.
But if I’m interested in Photography, I would keep up with my photographer friend.
“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” – Jim Rohn
After I realized these things, I started to surround myself with people I liked to become.
However, sometimes you simply cannot hang out with those people. For example: You might want to be a great marketer. Seth Godin is one of the best in this field. But you can’t hang out with him. So, what do you do?
The best thing to do would be to consume all of his resources like books, blogs, podcasts, videos, etc.
Surrounding yourself with people and surrounding yourself with their resources is almost the same thing. If you can’t surround yourself with people who you like to become then you can consume their resources.
That’s what I did. Almost all my influential people are on the Internet. I started communicating with them, consumed their resources and kept in touch with them.
That made a huge impact in my life. I found myself thinking like them and also living like them. I was copying almost everything from them and thus, becoming like them.
I now see why intelligent people advocate reading the history of successful people. It’s because you’ll get to see the world from their point of view. And the more you spend them with it, the more you’ll start to think like them. Thus, taking you one step closer to success.
So, stop to check if you are following the path of people you’re surrounding yourself with. You are influenced by them unconsciously. Think if you like to become like them or not.
If yes, then keeping surrounding yourself with them. If not, leave those people and start surrounding yourself with people you’d like to become. If you can’t surround yourself with those people then consume their materials and resources.
Also, I recommend reading the history. You don’t need to remember the dates. They are not important. What’s important is the lesson you learn from it.