"My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me."
- Henry Ford
Think about some of your closest friends. These are the friends who are there for you through thick and thin. You consider them to be an extension of your family. If you are ever in a jam, they got you. If they are truly worthy of your friendship, they hopefully are not part of the reason you got jammed up in the first place. As we get older, we have all types of friends. Work friends. Neighbor friends. Old friends. New friends. The best kind of friends are the ones that lift us up and inspire us to be our best.
Most of us cycle through friends throughout the years. Some friends come and go, while others stay with us for a lifetime. It's those old friends that we chose whether or not to stay in touch with. While we may stay loyal to some of our oldest friends, some may end up not being the best influences on us, while others give us a reason to strive for living life to the fullest. While evaluating which friends lift us up and which ones may give us pause regarding their actions or outlook on life, we may reevaluate who we want to be spending more time connecting with.
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I am not suggesting we should ditch any negative influences who have been a big part of our lives. In fact, we can make an effort to be a model of the kind of friend we would like them to be toward us. The key is to not allow them to pull us down into their world of lower vibrational energy and negativity. On the contrary, we should make more of an effort to connect with those friends who we feel empowered by and encourage us to be our best selves simply by the life they live. You know the ones. They inspire us to level up our own lives, or at least, they should.
Jim Rohn tells us we are the average of the five people we spend the most time with. When you consider this, hopefully you are mostly connecting with people who inspire and encourage you. Those negative influences may make you feel better about your life, but do they do anything to make you want to improve your life? It's those positive influences in our lives who help us become the best versions of ourselves. The more we connect with those positive influences in our lives, the more we continue to strive and thrive in our own lives.
More Wellness!
Greater Good: Why Your Friends Are More Important Than You Think
Psychology Today: The 13 Essential Traits of Good Friends
