Motivational Monday: Change your average, change your life

Photo Credit: Behappy.me

Well known motivational speaker Jim Rohn once famously said "You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with". I came across this quote again recently and started wondering if it was true.

Looking back over my life and some of my biggest achievements, I realised there was quite a big element of truth to it. 

One example was in my final year of university. A few major things had happened in my third year which had thrown my grades off by quite a bit, and I suddenly found myself sitting borderline between a 2:1 and 2:2 grade. 

Determined to get nothing less than a 2:1, I made a decision there and then to spend all my study time with a couple of people who at that point were only acquaintances but who later on became really good friends. 

The reason I picked them was because one of them was set to achieve a 1st and the other person was borderline between a 2:1 and 1st.  I didn't realise it fully at the time but studying with two people who were already doing so much better than I was pushed me beyond my wildest imagination (even if it was  only so I didn't look stupid whilst studying with them!)

The final result was that I came out with my 2:1, my dissertation was chosen to be used as a study guideline for other students and I came extremely close to actually getting a 1st class as my final qualification!

Another quick example was the first time I was asked to bake a cake for someones wedding (a stranger, so you can imagine how scary that was) I remember thinking OMG the pressure! I'm not sure I can do it.  I then spoke to a couple of people close to me and one person said I shouldn't do it and the other person told me they fully believed in me and I should go for it. I decided to go for it and the cake came out beautifully and brought in many more orders after that (I don't bake anymore for outside orders in case you are wondering)

I think it's important for you to be your own person and not be overly influenced by others however saying that, no one ever really stands alone and we all need support and there is always room to grow.

Just looking back over many of my achievements has highlighted to me how people can either lift you up or bring you down, and it got me thinking about some of the things I'm trying to achieve and who is in my life. 

So I have decided to re-evaluate my average. This is how I plan to do it:

1. Evaluate the areas in my life where I am living way below my potential and the areas where I want to change and need motivation to do so. Examples for me include my career, fitness, blog etc
2. Look at the 5 people I spend the most of my time with and assess if any of those people help with any of those areas
3. For where I have gaps,  I will be identifying 3-5 new people that have strengths in those areas and working to build a relationship with them and learn from them

For me it's not about removing my loved ones from my life (as I'm sure they are probably the 5 people I spend the most amount of time with) it's more about adding new key people to my life who are already successful in the areas I am trying to improve and who I will learn from. 

I think it's so important to take ownership for your life and to go after what you need, because most times, these things don't just magically appear. I am also a firm believer in the phrase "if you don't like it, change it" and that's what I plan to do....change my average.

So over to you. What do you think? Are there areas of average in your life that you would like to change? Let me know in the comments below

Motivational Monday posts are posted every other Monday.

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