YOUR FRIENDS

I have decided to talk about the effects that the people around us have on us.

‘Show me your friend and I will tell you who you are’. This is a life long adage that has attempted to issue a strong caution to us, about the effect that our friends have on us.

As toddlers, without any form of knowledge and understanding of our environment, we have eventually grown into the world with the types of knowledge and information that our enviroment has impart unto us. How does a toddler know that the father should be called ‘DAD’, or the mother ‘MUM’? Whatever information you have acquired as a person, over the years is a semblance of your enviroment. Let us take a scientific analysis of this phenomenon. Say a couple, X resident in France gives birth to a baby and then immediately swaps their baby with another couple, Y resident in Nigeria. Twenty years down the line, it is expected that couple X’s baby will be fluent in the local Nigerian dialects and speak with little or no French accent. On the other hand, couple Y’s baby will be fluent in French and have a French accent as well. Talking about genotype (genetic effect) and phenotype (environmental effect).

There is a very strong relationship between what we are and who our friends are. Remember, the people you interact with will determine what you do, and what you do will determine who you are, and who you are will determine who you will become. Surround yourself with people who will make you do ONLY those things that will make you a better person. This is because, there are four types of people today, and they are:

1. Those who add to your live

2. Those who multiply your life

3. Those who subtract from your life

4. Those who divide your life.

If you intend to fulfill your life long desires, then it is time for you to carry out a proper check of the kind of people that abound around you. In truth, it is not realistic to have only the first two sets of people around you. There is a great tendency for the other two types of people to be around you (if they don’t, then you don’t have anything special about you, you have nothing to offer), but you have to ensure that you have more of the first two groups than the other two groups around you.

Take that decision today; surround yourself with inspiring and positive thinkers that are willing to better your life. Remember, you need people to succeed: good people.

Ifada Johnson

Peace