The New Social Distancing

You’re judged by the Company You Keep. Guilt By Association. Running with the Wrong Crowd. All of these terms may seem like things parents say to keep their kids from getting mixed up with their classmates who grew up on the wrong side of town. Scaring us off from getting in trouble or avoiding situations that might lead to making bad life choices.

We’re led to believe that it starts innocently enough, maybe a little trespassing mixed in with “borrowing” a bike left out in someone’s lawn. But those small actions lead to doing hard drugs where you eventually end up living in the streets begging for your next meal. Right? I mean, its gotta start somewhere and the bad seeds of tomorrow are laying the groundwork today for a new generation of lost souls.

Professional Time Wasters

Well, not really. These scare tactics eventually lose their stigma when we realize you can chalk it up to kids being kids. The real problem begins when we start to enter adulthood and the people that we choose to associate with can actually hinder our growth and productivity. Friends like these can come in the form of old acquaintances, co-workers, and sometimes even family members. We can easily identify them. In fact, you’re probably reflecting on one of those individuals right now.

Deep down we know that some of these relationships can only exist in small doses. We’ll tolerate their irresponsibility, lack of social awareness, or headaches that come along as an added bonus of the friendship. But at the same time we are completely self aware that nothing is gained on our end from this perpetual source of stress. And just because we take it in small doses doesn’t mean it detrimental to our personal aspirations. That’s what tricks us into thinking these relationships aren’t hurting anything but it’s time to Social Distance yourself from those who do nothing but bring you down.

"But at the same time we are completely self aware that nothing is gained on our end from this perpetual source of stress.'"

Social Distance Your Way to Success

At the end of the day, if you choose to spend your time with an individual or group of people who aren’t striving for something better out of a life then they will ultimately be a force that keeps you closer to their lifestyle than to achieving the goals laid out for your own. Time spent around them is time wasted and will make your road to success a much longer one. This is a blunt way to put it but it doesn’t make it any less true.

The other issue that arises is that most of these friends will struggle to find the good that comes when you do make progress. You see, Misery Loves Company, and the haters come out in full force when they see an individual clawing their way to a better life. They’ll feel like they’re losing a friend instead of looking in the mirror to notice the real problem.

Is this easy? No. Is it possible to achieve success while surrounding yourself with bad company? Of course. However, knowing how much the deck is stacked against you in this world we call the Struggle State, why make things harder on yourself than you have to? Now is your chance, while Social Distancing is still cool, to make it a permanent practice for who you choose to spend your time with.

And if you don’t hear back from that old buddy of yours after all this COVID shit blows over, well, maybe they listen to this podcast too...

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