Have you ever heard of the saying “crabs in a bucket”? Imagine a bucket full of crabs and one crab tries to climb out. What do the other crabs do? Basically, they do everything they possibly can to pull the crab back into the bucket. Unfortunately, the same kind of thing can happen to you if you surround yourself with the wrong type of friends.
There are some friends who are the type to uplift, encourage and support others. However, the wrong type of friends may be jealous and envious, causing them to be nay-sayers and negative when they see you working to achieve your goals. These types of friends will always find fault in your endeavors and are overly pessimistic on whatever it is you are trying to accomplish.
Now, this is not to say that you should only have friends who will tell you exactly what you want to hear. It is good to have honest and constructive criticism that is unbiased and in good faith. Nobody has all of the answers and many times we, as human beings, are blinded by being attached to our specific point of view. This can be detrimental to your endeavors in business and every other aspect in life since it can blind you to deficiencies in your plans that you had not noticed before.
On the other hand, there is a point where supposed friends are so negative and critical where it is obvious that the objective of their criticisms is to discourage you from moving forward with your goals. Note, this can be on purpose in the worst-case scenario, but many times they are doing this unconsciously. Perhaps they have deep insecurities about themselves that give them anxiety which manifests in negativity towards anybody else trying to achieve success or happiness. Regardless, these types of friends will sap your energy and waste your time, keeping you from being able to reach your personal and business goals.
The question you must ask yourself is which type of friends do you have surrounding you. Are they the type to be forward-thinking and positive? Or are they the negative nay-sayers who are undermining your efforts to achieve success? If you are surrounded by the latter it is time to make a change. Those types of friends are not worth keeping around and will only slow you down in your journey to success and happiness.
I never said finding true success would be easy and I realize that changing who you spend time with may be one of the most difficult things that you do. The important things you can do to make significant positive change in your life will mostly be challenging. You have to ask yourself whether it is more important to you to achieve your goals or to maintain contact with people who will only keep you from reaching these goals. Misery may enjoy company, but you don’t have to choose to be a part of that group.
Success is never an accident.
Joe Berardy
info@joeberardy.com
joeberardy.com
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