Your Association Matters; Beware Of The Company You Keep

The dog that keeps company with the goat will soon start eating grasses.

This is a popular quote in this part of the world and what it simply means is that what happens to anyone can be remotely traced back to the kind of association and company that the person is keeping. Without even realizing it, your association has a strong influence on not just your actions but your character and attitude. If you stay a while with people, you will begin to see yourself act like them and speak like them. You cannot stay with people that always talk negatively and will not ultimately join them in talking negatively. This is just like playing under the rain and wishing that your clothes will not get wet.

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The kind of character you will not want to exhibit, it will be pointless to hang around the people that exhibit such character. At first, you may not flow along with them, or your willpower will be working to protect you from them. But the truth is, how many times can your willpower say "no" without cracking? After a while of their influence, you will see yourself cracking under pressure and you will begin to do what you had initially detested. This is just to let you know that the power of influence, sometimes, may overwhelm willpower.

There are many people that, if not for a particular friendship or company that they keep, they will not be involved in certain habits. A friend of mine shared with me how she started smoking weed. While in school, she happened to live in the student lodge, but because of lack of available space to accommodate the number of students that are seeking for accommodation in the lodge, the students had to be paired in the ratio of 3 students to one room. In her own room, the two other ladies that were paired with her were smokers.

At first, she was not moved by that, then she started excusing herself each time her roommates started smoking. However, after a few weeks of staying with them and after their convincement to take just a smoke, she yielded. After the first smoke, they convinced her to take a stick, and that was how she started smoking all manner of things. Now it has not just become a habit but she can barely go a day without smoking. Now she is trying to stop it without reasonable progress being made. All these were because of the company she kept while in school.

One thing about keeping the wrong company is that even after they have left you, their impact in your life will still stick around. This is why you have to be mindful and cautious of your company. If the company you keep does not make you to grow positively, then you need to change the company. Note this: You do not have the entire time in the universe to afford wasting it on the wrong company. You should know that you are not under any form of mandate to be friends with anyone - it is actually a matter of choice, so choose wisely.

There are some great people in history that were able to attain their level of greatness because of the great company that they kept. You have to always seek for the company that will help you to grow, while you also help them to grow and it will become a win-win for all of you. After all, good friendship begins with you being a good friend. The kind of friendship that you want, you have to first become that kind of friend. Obviously, you should be able to fulfil your friendship requirements.

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One thing you need to know is that no friendship leaves you the same; it is either they have positive influence on you or they are negatively impacting on you. The truth is, you cannot choose the influence your friends will have on you but you can choose your friends. So if you want positive influence, then you need to keep company with people of positive disposition to life.

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