Why You Need To Get Rid Of Bad Company

Are Your Friends Holding You Back?

January 1, 2012

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If you're trying to get ahead and improve yourself, you've taken steps to set yourself up for success. You've gotten in shape (mentally and physically), you're working hard on yourself, and you're reading books and articles with information you need. If you’re trying to make improvements, great work — most people try to get ahead by blaming their problems on their environment, and don't take any of the blame for why they're stuck in a rut.

However, there are ways your environment can drag you down — look at the people around you. If the people you're friends with, or associate with at work, are a negative influence, guess what? You're being influenced, whether you’re aware of it or not. Now, any of your friends can have a bad patch, and being there to pick them up when they're down is part of friendship. But we're talking about that other friend — the one whose idea of fun is always getting wasted, who can never chip in on the bill and always has a crisis he needs help cleaning up. You ignore his calls, and the one time you do pick up feels like one too many.

If you're like most guys, you don't seek out the company of this kind of guy, but when he initiates a meet-up, you tend to accommodate. It's easy to say and hard to do, but here are four compelling reasons you need to cut ties.

They are shaping your attitude

Jim Rohn is a self-help author who famously said: “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” Your attitude, the way you look at the world, is influenced by who you spend time with. Think about it: Your worldview is shaped by the things you see and experience in the world. The way you invest your time in people and activities shapes the man you become. That's why it's so important for guys to travel, to see new things and expand their horizons. On the flip side, if you spend your time in a smoky bar, listening to somebody complain about how their job sucks, their boss sucks, their love life sucks, and there's never enough money, it's going to rub off on you. Do you leave these sessions feeling charged and ready to take on the world? No, they juice you up with negative energy and teach you to look at your life like a victim. That's just a bad attitude — we've all had friends who get into too many fights, trouble with the law, drugs, and worse. You grow to fit your environment, so make sure your environment breeds excellence and positivity.

They are derailing you from your goals

Have you ever been driving home from work, with the plan to cook dinner, clean up around the house, throw in a load of laundry, exercise, save a cat that's stuck in a tree, solve the Middle Eastern situation, read for a while, then work a little more on your plan to go into business for yourself? Then your phone rings with your buddies telling you to meet them at the bar. You tell yourself “I'll do all that stuff tomorrow...,” and the next thing you recall is your alarm waking you up in the morning. Listen, plans change, and one of the best parts of being an adult is that you get to make responsible decisions about your life. You can eat pretty much whatever you want to for dinner. Feel like grabbing a DVD tonight? Go for it. And if the offer to do something fun comes along, by all means, rearrange your schedule and have a good time.

Read on for reasons why you need to get rid of bad company...