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I am really liking this series on friendship!  Who we have around us can really make a difference in our journey through life.  I think it’s pretty safe to say that many of you will probably have some handle on the fact that not everyone you meet is really going to be a good friend to you. I hope so at least, because there are definitely people out there that will be nothing but bad news for you and the goals you have set for your life.  Seriously bad news, you know like a giant bulldozer digging through the nice grassy hill that is your life and future. Some people can do some serious damage to our lives and often times it happens little by little in a way that is difficult to see until your little hill has been bulldozed flat and turned into a block of condos or something. So keep that in mind as you search out people to be in your inner circle and as you allow yourself to get close to people.  Pay attention to the details and the little things of those people because before you know it those details become your details too.

Little Bits Over Time Turn Into Big Changes

How do they do it you ask?  Well when we are around people often enough and have given them the ability to speak into our situations and our life, it is like dropping a drop of food coloring once a day into a big bucket of water.  You are definitely not going to notice the water change color right away but over time it will definitely start to change the color of the water. You impact each other in many ways including your behavior, decisions and even the way you talk.  If the other person has lots of small bad habits you may find those wearing off on you, or vice versa with good habits. I am going to go ahead and assume that you would much rather have some really good, positive habits wearing off on you rather than those bad ones.  

Invest in People That Are Good For You

If that potential friend has a bad temper and gets easily angered, or constantly complains about their life or any other number of bad habits you probably do not want to get too close to them.  Instead invest your time in people that are positive, that can talk about tough situations without complaining and are able to control their anger and emotions. Those things are worthy of rubbing off on us.  We want to make forward progress in our goals and make positive changes in our lives, not go backwards. I am telling you it is inevitable when you hang out with individuals with negative attitudes and bad behaviors that they will affect you negatively and when you are with positive people it will affect you positively.

Protect Yourself, Be Choosy!

So be careful who you choose to be in your inner circle.  Not that you can’t be friends with people who have some negativity in their lives just see it up front so you can protect yourself from it’s impacts and then hopefully you can help them out more than they affect you.  But only do this if you are in a place where you feel you are strong enough to positively impact someone else’s life. If you are a hot mess yourself and just trying to get your life in order, then focus on that. Focus on being a better you and surrounding yourself with people that can help you and in time maybe you will be able to return the favor for someone else.  Work on building a nice little cabin on top of that grassy hill and stay away from that bulldozer!