Marc and Angel have a great post on the warning signs that you may be in bad company. Have a look at their article above and decide for yourself if bad company may be negatively impacting your life.
Choosing the company we keep can have a very profound impact on our lives. I often hear the quote, "if you lay down with dogs, you wake up with fleas", and for the most part I have found this very true.
The people we choose to associate with have more impact on our mindset and values than you might realise. Quite simply, they "rub" off on us. Most of the bad mistakes I made in my late teens were a direct result of hanging with the wrong crowd. While the choices I made were my own, I was very easily pushed into things I should not have been doing. There is no real value discussing the reasons I was so easily influenced, but the main thing I now realise is my life may have been very different had I picked a better crowd of friends. Ah, to put an old head on young shoulders, if only we could.
There were many reasons why I got mixed up with the wrong people, but the most significant and worrying thing was that I couldn't see how much my behaviours and personality were changing. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but in the "here and now" it only helps us to not make the same mistakes again, it does not help us making them in the first place.
Minimalism has made my decision making process much more simple. If I had the same values, way back then, as I hold now I may have been more selective with the company I kept. We are all however the sum of our experiences and I don't regret mine one little bit, not even the bad ones. The list below are just some of the things that I personally identified when asking myself why did I mix with all the wrong people. I won't explain each point as I am sure you understand what they mean.
1. Peer pressure.
2. Low self esteem.
3. A feeling of common interests.
4. The need to feel part of something.
5. Loneliness.
6. Companionship.
7. Support.
8. Friendship.
Have a read of Marc and Angels post, mull over what I have written and see if any of the points mentioned strike a chord for you and your present situation.
Are you
???
???
Brett Tulk.
No comments:
Post a Comment