14 Aug Who are Your Birds?

Have you ever heard the phrase, “You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with?”  What about, “Birds of a feather flock together?”

Some of the best advice my parents gave me, and I passed on to my children, was to choose your friends wisely. Even if you see yourself as an independent minded individual, you have to admit that the attitude of the people you spend time with rubs off on you.

Dr. Jackie Freiberg wrote Be a Person of Impact:  12 Strategies to be the CEO of Your Future. She defines impact so a 10 year old can understand.  She explains, “Impact is how you land on people, or how you bump into people.  When Mommy or Daddy is having a good day and we bump into you, we leak happiness.  When Mommy or Daddy is having a bad day and we land on you, sometimes we leak some unpleasant things.  We might be grumpy.  We might not be as kind as we normally are.  That’s impact.”

I love this definition of impact.  This concept reminds me of a story in the New Testament where a woman struggled to get close to Jesus.  She just wanted to touch him.  She knew that if she just got close enough to him, his impact would leak on her.  That simple touch and step of faith healed her.  Talk about a bump!

Now don’t get the big head!  I am not suggesting that if people get close enough to you a miracle will occur.  I am suggesting that your mental state, attitude, fears, and dreams are infectious, however.

Get excited about something and watch the people around you get excited.  The opposite holds true as well.  Surround yourselves with people that are motivated to make a difference in the world, and you will find yourself wanting to change the world.

This most recent election cycle, unfortunately, is bringing out the worst in our country.  The negativity is oppressing.  Turn the news on for a few minutes and no matter which side you support, you’ll get depressed and disheartened.  A dense fog of lies, threats, and oppression settles around me and smoothers me if I listen to that stuff too long or spend time around people who dwell on it.  How does this paragraph make you feel?

I’ve chosen to turn the news off.  I’ve chosen to switch the conversion to something productive. I refuse to talk about politics and people.  I discuss ideas, goals, and visions instead.   When people start ranting about the sorry state of the country, I respond, “I’m concentrating on the things that I can change.”

I’m also surrounding myself with people who are doing the same.  I want the people who bump into me most frequently to be people that want to make a positive impact.  I want to benefit from their leaking encouragement, and I want to leak on them positive change as well. The result – I am more invigorated and motivated than I’ve been in a long time.

Who do you need to surround yourself with?  Who do you need to distance yourself from?

Who do you need to become in order to make a positive impact?

Here’s to the Journey!

David W. Ball, MD (Internal Medicine Physician, husband, father, writer, and speaker.  Founder of NuVitality Health, founding partner of Tyler Internal Medicine Associates, and founding partner of Life Changing Fitness)