Success impulse: Does your environment still suit you?
A provocative question for once: Do your friends still suit you? A question that you can also apply to your colleagues and your entire environment. The following success impulse provides answers.
The question can also be posed differently: Do the people around you help you to grow and become a better person? Or do they hold you back?
It's not about immediately changing your whole life, but about consciously reflecting: Do you have a good mix of people around you? (And of course your own children are usually excluded from this).
Here are three key questions that can help you gain clarity about your environment:
- Question 1: Who helps you with your further development? Does this person help you to develop yourself - directly or indirectly? Or are they limiting you because they keep repeating the same thoughts and stories? The fact is: if you are not developing in the company of this person, this is an indication that this relationship should be reconsidered.
- Question 2: Who is holding you back?ck? Is there someone who is actively or passively hindering your steps forward? A simple example: You have a new idea, but whenever you bring it up, it is waved off with "It won't work anyway". Attention: There are often people like this among colleagues.
- Question 3: Who inspires you? Are there people who make you feel positive and inspire you when you talk to them? Such people are really valuable. Ask yourself how many inspiring people you have around you. If the answer is "none", you should consider what this means for your personal development.
So what to do? Here are a few pointers to help you rethink and regroup the people around you:
- Group 1: Who should you see more often? Consciously look for people who inspire and support you. There's no point in always spending time with the same people out of habit if it doesn't get you anywhere. Concrete tip: Make an appointment once a week (or once a month) with a person you might want to see more often in the future.
- Group 2: Who should you see less often? You don't have to end a friendship straight away, but perhaps you can reduce the frequency of contact. It might be enough to spend time together every few months instead of every week. Or don't start a conversation with this person at the coffee machine every time.
- Group 3: Who should you part with? Some relationships have simply served their purpose. It is okay to end such contacts, especially if they have a negative impact. This often leads to a natural separation. In a professional context, this may mean that you consider whether a change of department or even company makes sense if many of your colleagues are no longer a good fit.
Conclusion: By consciously choosing the people around you, you can actively shape the direction of your life.
To the author:
Volkmar Völzke is a success maximizer. Book author. Consultant. Coach. Speaker. www.volkmarvoelzke.ch