Are you Being the Very Best You Can?

“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”Jim Rohn

My mentor say’s it’s the average of the ten people you spend your time with, whether it’s five or ten people, the fact of the matter is that who you mix with has an impact on who you become.

This week I have been carrying out some coaching assessments which illustrate this point.

Coach A was coaching a highly talented senior manager. She was focused, kept her client on track and encouraged her to find solutions to overcome the obstacles that were currently preventing her from achieving her goals.

Coach B, however, had a client who was struggling to set herself a clear goal, she became caught up in the negative reality of the situation and coach B found herself agreeing with her clients predicament.

Now you may argue that coach A was far more competent than coach B. Point taken, but what was so interesting about these two assessments was that both coach A and coach B were coaching other coaches. They had ‘found’ someone similar to themselves - in both scenario’s they were feeding off each others energy.

To a degree that’s okay, if you are happy as a mediocre coach then fine, but what happens when you are ready to move out of your comfort zone, when you want to become better at what you do, when you want to grow your business, when you want to move to the next level, raise the bar? Hanging around with people who don’t share those aspirations, who are have pessimist tendencies will ultimately drag you down, even if you are initially a positive person.
Maybe today is the day that you need to take a moment to think about who you are spending your time with.

They say, success breeds success, just think how much easier it will be when you spend more time with people who share similar visions as you, those who have been there before you and already succeeded. I’m not suggesting you suddenly drop your very best friend, but maybe give consideration to how much time you give to certain relationships in the future.

I have a very good friend, let’s call her Sarah. She is a great homemaker, is very nearly self sufficient really, she’s reliable, caring, very giving and has so many qualities I admire but when I stopped to think about our friendship I realised just how drained I felt every time I saw her. You see Sarah, had a constant gripe about almost everything, her glass is seldom half –full and we certainly have very differing aspirations.

Sarah and I are still great friends, we just see less of each other, which has given me the time to find and mix with those I consider to be where I want to be. Positive, proactive, successful people, with whom I can bounce ideas, high energy people who inspire me and I can learn from.

So remember, who you spend time with has a vast influence as to who you are!

Are you really being the very best you can?