The past two weeks we have talked about the Law of Association and the people around you, that affect you day in and day out. If you missed these posts, The Law of Association Part I and Part II, you may want to check them out first. This week we are going to continue the discussion with the Law of Association, Part III.
Last week we discussed the first two steps for making a change and improving your associations:
- Limit your time
- Disassociation
This week we discuss the third step:
3. Expand your associations
You need to spend more time with people that lift you up and help you become a better person, a better parent, a better entrepreneur, a better leader, a better networker, a better thinker, more positive, more hopeful and more powerful. But there is a catch 22 here – successful people are aware of the Law of Association, and if you are less successful than them, they want to limit their association with you; so how do you connect and spend more time with people that are more successful than you or that have more knowledge than you in a specific area?
Often you have to be creative and maybe even start small. One of the steps I took was reaching out to key persons in my life and asking if they would assist me as a mentor. It is only about an hour or two per month, but they have knowledge and success that I want to emulate, so it is worth it for me.
Another step, down the creative path, is virtual assistance. At different times, I have counted leaders such as Jack Welch, Jim Rohn and Zig Ziglar, among my top 5. Not because I knew them, but because I read their books and listened to their audios in my car, over and over again. Including virtual development, in the form of books, audio programs and training and education systems, in your top 5 can be a very powerful step to improving yourself, developing your skills and fostering a positive mindset.
Also note, approximately every 90 days of your life, the 5 people that you spend the most time with will have the opportunity to change. Someone will move, someone will get married, someone will get divorced, or have a kid, or get a new job, and somehow the dynamics will change. When that happens choose carefully who fills that spot. Every 90 days you have the opportunity to improve your 5.
On a final note, here is an excerpt from The Slight Edge, by Jeff Olson:
If you want to raise the quality of your life, hang out with people who have been there and done that. If you want to be a great public speaker, hang out with great speakers. If you want to be a success in business, hang around successful business people. If you want to be a terrific parent, spend lots of time with men and women who have mastered parenting. Do you know why birds of a feather flock together? Because they’re all going in the same direction. They share a common vision. If you’re after a goal-any goal-go find the people who have achieved that goal, or who are well along the path to attaining that goal, and be with them, hang out with them, camp on their doorstep.
This also falls closely in line with the teachings of Napoleon Hill:
Whenever two minds connect, a third mind is created, patterned after the stronger of the two – for better or for worse. Many successful people can trace their success directly to the time they began a close association with someone who possessed the positive mental attitude that they were able to copy.
So, my challenge to you, is to identify your top 5, determine what adjustments you need to make and commit to including personal development and continuing education as part of your daily decisions, because if you improve your associations, you improve yourself.
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