Would you let someone dump their garbage in your living room?
Probably not.
But I bet you have people around you in your life who dump garbage into your head don’t you? This type of garbage is negativity, gossip, discouragement, sometimes borderline evil. You can choose who you spend time with. Choose those who are positive and encouraging. Choose people who add value to you.
If someone is negative, I tune them out right away, and I avoid them in the future. I value my mind more than my living room. If you leave garbage in my living room…that’s easy to clean up. If I let you pollute my mind…that is a lot harder to overcome.
So I keep it pretty simple….if I think you are dishonest…your’e out. If you are a negative influence…your out. If you are unkind…you’re out. Get the picture? Here’s a little snippet from Jim Rohn on the topic:
“In order to protect our better future we must have the courage to disassociate whenever necessary.”
Why take such drastic action? Because the negative influence is too powerful and too threatening. Never underestimate the power of influence. The reason why influence is so powerful is because it has the capacity to change us, and change can be difficult to reverse, particularly if it is for the worse.”
Like failure, influence is subtle. We would never allow someone to deliberately push us off the course we have set for ourselves. But if we are not careful, we might inadvertently permit someone to nudge us in the wrong direction.” Rohn
It’s important to your future to disassociate with people who are negative influences.