Who Are You Surrounded By? | Career Angles
By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
“You’re the average of the five people spend the most time with.” Who are you spending the most time with?
So, the title of this asked the question of who do you surround yourself with and it comes from an old quote from Jim Rohn who was a motivational speaker. The quote starts off with ‘you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.’ If you think about who those five people are and what are they like, because often we start to evolve ourselves into people like those ,five.
Tony Robbins adds on, completely unrelated, if we surround ourselves with people who are successful who are forward moving, who are positive who are focused on producing results, who support us, it’ll challenge us to be more and do more and share more. If you can surround yourself with people who will never let you settle for less than you can be, you have the greatest gift that anyone can hope for. Beautiful statement and I believe it’s true.
Now, when you think of your office right now and who you surrounded by, what kind of people are they, that’s just the office. Simple things? Positive? Negative? What kind of people are they? Who are you closest to in that office? What are
they like? Positive? Negative? 5 positive people? 5 negative? Some combination who nurtures you?
What is the space like? I worked in an office some years ago where the a/c invariably went out during the summer for days! The building can’t get it fixed properly. Do you think we were happy people? We were crabby and grouchy and it carried through even after the AC came back on days later. It was awful! I must in all candor say I didn’t like the work environment (not the a/c issue) but, as I learned some years ago, environments tend to win. it’s again part of that we all influence one another. We have this manner about our selves or a way about ourselves that we come together as groups. We create a collective consciousness amongst ourselves and we kind of evolved into these personality types. I grew to be crabby. I grew to be annoyed. I grew to be frustrated because I work with crabby and frustrated people in a place, in a physical environment, that was unpleasant uncomfortable and so on said I don’t want to be this way anymore. I don’t want to be involved with people like this anymore and I moved on.
When you think of your work environment, like I said, what are the people like–positive or negative . Do they care about what they do? Are they going through the motions? The tendency will be if there are people who go through the motions they’re going to kind of wear you down to become that kind of person. Which means between your commute and working, for minimum eight hours a day, you’re going to have a 10 hour day where you’re not doing anything that really sustains you. Is that the environment you want to be in? Wouldn’t you rather work in an environment that really nurtures you? And you are the best. Don’t work in those kind of places you make excuses for people. You made the choice to remain because financially it’s worthwhile or you believed it’s safe.
There are excuses that are offered to justify a decision or they are less than who they could possibly be. Your choice, folks. I leave it to you to decide whether that serves you. I know I’ve made my choices but you make yours.
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ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a career and leadership coach who worked as a recruiter for more than 40 years. He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with more than 1800 episodes and his newest show, “No BS Coaching Advice” and is a member of The Forbes Coaches Council.
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