In my last post Building Your Confidence, I talked about the tools you need to power yourself to succeed in your venture. If you have not read it, I highly recommend that you please do so prior to reading this post. Now that you have built your confidence and ready to embark on your journey, you will need to choose your surroundings. I am not talking about your physical location, who you hang out with or such. I am speaking of your support system.
Your support system can consist of members of your immediate family, friends, church members and or your co-workers, etc. However, when selecting people to be part of your support system, you have to be really careful in so doing. It will be tremendously beneficial to you if those people are part of what I call "The Sincere Club". Members of the this club are loving, supportive, caring, honest and will not lead you astray by telling you what you want to hear, they are unpretentious. All the people that you know, will fall into one of these three categories: the weeds, the lukewarms, and the solids. And to best choose your support system, you have to pluck out the weeds, be mindful of the lukewarms and embrace the solids.
Plucking Out the Weeds
The people who fall into this category are those who do not care about you nor your goals. They are what I like to call the "if-I-were-you" crew. Their sole presence in your life is to stunt your growth while leading you astray, if you are not careful. They are the ones who encourage every bad habit of yours and spread like wild fire, every terrible decision or misfortune you may have. You have to pluck these people out. It is important to remove the weeds or else, they will continue to block your progress and pull you down.
Being Mindful of the Lukewarms
Ah, the lukewarms. These are the ones that are not there to share your happiness, neither are they around when you are sad. They only care about being in the number (counted as a friend). The lukewarms are the kind of people that when you see them, you see them. You don't even miss their absence neither remember their presence. The lukewarms are always everywhere, but somewhere. However, if left unmonitored, they can drag suitcases of distractions into your life. They are not to be trusted. They are not true to themselves, so you are not getting a real friend anyway.
Embracing the Solids
I love this part, embracing the solids. These people are not difficult to recognize. You may not always like what they say or do, but they mean you well. The solids are members of "The Sincere Club". These are your true support system. They are the ones who love you, support you and most of all, will not tell you what You want to here. Members of this club are forthcoming, they share your happiness, they hurt when you hurt and feel the pains of your misfortunes. However, they will not, on any day or time, compromise the love that they have for you by feeding your ego.
After careful consideration of all your friends and families, and have finally chosen your surroundings based on your support system, you are now ready to conquer the tasks ahead of you. Your surroundings, members of your support system, will be there to encourage you to never give up. And if you were to fall, they will be right there to help pick you up. When the going gets tough, they will enable you, (think mentor, coaching). By the time you begin to put your foot in front of the other, you would have been empowered to see the sky as your limit.
