What else could impact our lives more than the people from around us? Their behavior and expectations are able to limit us, but also to give us a brighter future.
Often we are part of circles in which we can’t reach our potential or find happiness because of the other people. We should start analyzing these circles and cut down some of the relationships. I’m not saying to cut the ones that don’t help us, but I’m definitely saying to cut those that are obstacles. Obstacles don’t always present themselves as people, but also as rules, standards or worse, “illusion of knowledge”, put on table most of the time by friends and family members.
First of all cut out those that simply don’t accept you or what you’re doing. As for me I there are a lot of things that I don’t like, but I can appreciate and accept them.
Here I’d like to give a quote, which is from one of my favorite movies, The Greatest Showman: “No one ever made a difference by being like everyone else”. If they can’t accept you, don’t mind them!
The “smart” kind:
I happened to be surrounded by people with “brain fog” or who all they did was trying to drag me down while they were thinking they were right and in fact it was some kind of delusion from their side or the absence of knowledge. Here perfectly fits another quote I love, this time by Hawking: “The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance; it is the illusion of knowledge”.
The negative kind:
We all have those people around that tell us “it’s bad” or “you won’t make it”, we should replace them by those that tell us “it’s bad, but I know you can make it better”.
Another quote from TGS: “Don’t Listen To Them. They Don’t Understand You But They Will”, and you shouldn’t care about the other ones! Why would you?!
The “fell from the sky” kind:
We all have those people calling us on phone after many years from nowhere, like they just fell from the sky, and asking for help and (usually) money. I’m not saying not to help people, but we should make sure that the person really needs our help and we should ask ourselves whether or not the person deserves it.
The “I see only money” kind:
We should surround ourselves with people that help us grow (in the right direction). When it comes to me, I always try to make something great, one to be remembered, rather than something that only generates money but no one knows about or worse, no one wants to know about. I had and still have some friends who all they care about is making money no matter what. Some might say it’s great to have such friends, however I’d rather have friends who would like to achieve something else, maybe great or just true, because of their passion and love.
The “I better find an excuse than a way” kind:
The kind of people I value maybe the most are the ones I can do something funny or awesome with. An example which I like is about the people we can plan and go on trips with, but it can be anything else. I had many around who found excuses like “I don’t have time” or “I don’t have money” when they spent hours each day/night in bars and clubs buying drinks for girls. What’s worse is that they actually thought they didn’t have time and money because they valued more these “amazing” local hangouts than a trip to Dubai for example. I’m open minded though, let’s say some aren’t into travelling, but they should still be into something other than bars and clubs, right?
I still have some I can’t do too much with, but it’s okay, at least they make me laugh with their ridiculous excuses.
At the end it all comes down to our goals and purposes, we should adjust everything around us, including the people, based on our requirements in a way that makes us happy.