SUCCESS...My favourite word in motivation terms..What's the number one factor of success? What one thing can you do start doing today that will greatly improve your odds of living a more successful, happier, fulfilled life? This one small, yet powerful, key will literally change every aspect of your life for the better. All it takes from you is to make one important decision.
So what am I talking about here? What is this number one factor of success that only takes a decision yet can guarantee an improvement in your life not only financially, but physically, mentally, relationship wise, and everything else?
Here's the answer in 3 words: Your Peer Group.
Your peer group is the group of people you spend most of your time with. If you want a good indicator of how your life will turn out, just examine your closest peers.There's a saying, "Birds of a feather flock together." This means that people tend to associate with other people who are like them in characteristics and interests. Do you think the things you do, the habits you have, and what you're interested in have an effect on certain aspects of your life? Of course. Here's an experiment you can do to prove that your peer group, those you spend the most time with, do in fact influence almost every aspect of your life.
The Proof
Take a look at your body. Now mentally compare it to your peers. If you're a little on the heavy side, chances are, so are your closest friends. If you're fit and working out everyday, chances are, so are your closest friends. Take a look at your income. Now compare it with your closest peers. Chances are that your income is probably no more than plus or minus ten percent from the average income of your closest peers.
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Let's look at your habits. If you smoke, chances are, so do your closest friends. If you complain a lot, chances are, they do as well. Look at how you dress, the activities you like to do, even your opinions on certain things, chances are, they're similar to your closest peers.
Make the Decision
If you are unsatisfied with where you are in life right now, you must either get yourself to live at a higher standard and get your friends to do the same, or you must get new friends. I know that seems a bit harsh, but it's an important decision you will have to make if you truly want to experience greater success in all areas of your life.
The reason why this is the number one factor of success is that when you surround yourself with people who have higher demand and expectations for themselves, you will naturally be pulled up to their level in regards to what you will demand of yourself. If the people you associate with all workout consistently and watch their diets, just to feel like you deserve to be around them, you will automatically start to do the same things.
The Hard Truth
I know people should accept you for who you are otherwise they're not your real friends but the fact is that if you want to live your life at a higher standard, to require more from yourself than you've been demanding, you must step up your game.
If the friends you have now are all living at a lower standard than you want to experience, then in order to change your life, you must associate yourself with people who are already experiencing the life you want.
Hopefully, when your peers see that change in you, they will become inspired and start to live their lives at a higher level as well. So why can't you just improve your life but stick with the same friends? When you start to improve your life, when you start to expect more from yourself, some of your peers may feel like you're leaving them behind and may start to associate with you less or even try to bring you back down. It's not because they don't care about you, it's just that they don't want to lose you, and this will effect you.
It's a decision that, for many, isn't at all easy, but if you really want to make a change in your life, and you're looking at your friends right now and saying to yourself, "I don't want to be like them", then you have to make that difficult decision. This doesn't mean you can't be friends with them, it just means you must spend less time with them and more time with people who live at a level you want to live at.
The number one factor of success, choosing the right peer group, admittedly isn't an easy one to implement but maybe that's why most people end up settling for a life of mediocrity instead of experiencing the life they've always felt they could obtain but never did.
