Associations Are Everything

ByMatthew

Walk with the dreamers, the believers, the courageous, the cheerful, the planners, the doers, the successful people with their heads in the clouds and their feet on the ground. Let their spirit ignite a fire within you to leave this world better than when you found it. – Wilferd A. Peterson

Allow me to add two well-worn sayings to the above:

You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.

If you’re the smartest/strongest/wisest/hardest-working person in the room, you need to get a different room.

*   *   *

There are different flavors of explanation for the above; suffice it to say that we are social creatures and we cannot be unlike those we spend significant time with.

I believe a big part of this is the idea of interpersonal dissonance. Dissonace must be resolved, at least in our minds and relationships.

Depending on a number of personal factors we will become like those we are around and they will become like us.

Without getting into the “weeds” of this, let me say that’s there is positive and negative dissonance. The former causes us to level-up to those performing at a higher level and the latter causes us to play small (so we don’t make others uncomfortable).

If you’re not feeling drawn to get better and improve, guess which one you’re experiencing?

There’s no stasis here. You’re either getting better or you’re not.

You’re going to be “walking” anyway, better to walk with the dreamers . . . .

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