Why Should You Surround Yourself With Supportive People?
Tags: career, psychology, motivation, networking
Published: 2020-01-20 16:59:41

---
title: Why Should You Surround Yourself With Supportive People?
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description: Ever shared your goals and aspirations with a family or friend, only for them to not understand or unable to relate?
tags: career, psychology, motivation, networking
---

Ever shared your goals and aspirations with a family or friend, only for them to not understand or unable to relate?

We have all been there.

And this is why motivation and inspiration are fueled by connecting and networking with people who have similar interests and mindsets.

But who exactly should you be looking for?

**You must not just surround yourself with only people you look up to, but also with people who are chasing similar dreams.**

Because they can influence your course of life positively by sharing what they are thinking, showing what they are doing to reach their goals.

**The people you spend the most time with shape who you are. 💎**

Our environment indeed does shape and influence us both mentally and physically based on studies: [the built environment and mental health](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14709704).

Even the most influential and wise motivational speaker and businessman, Jim Rohn, said that:

>You are the average of the five people that you mingle with.
—Jim Rohn

You can take advantage of that if you start hanging out more with people who have the mindset you seek to adopt and are achieving (or have already achieved) goals similar to yours.

## 🤞 Aim to pal up with truth-tellers

One of the keys to achieving success is to surround yourself with supportive truth-tellers:

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Everybody needs at least one person around who tells them the truth, who can tell you if you are wrong or made a mistake, who will provide you constructive feedback, and help you grow faster in this way or not allowed to make a more significant mistake.

**Don't be afraid to trust people because your fears can be holding you back from further developing a good relationship with people who could one day be your friends.**

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The best way to trust anyone is to get to know them first as ordinary individuals who have good intentions. Don't be quick to judge them.

## 🌟 Get inspired by people

Even the simple act of observing others can affect your own inspiration and motivation in life.

According to [motivation synchronicity experiments](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11031-009-9151-3), the person who is watching how someone else performs a task will either become intrinsically motivated (motivation comes from within) or extrinsically motivated (motivation comes from external recognition and rewards).

As a result, the person who is intrinsically or extrinsically motivated to experiment with the observed task will try to accomplish this task or similar on their own too.

That's why when you see what others created or built something that you genuinely like, at that moment the thought passes in your mind:

**“I can do it too! At least I can try it!”**

👉 [Research watching an expert do something make you think you can do it too](https://hbr.org/2018/05/research-watching-an-expert-do-something-makes-you-think-you-can-do-it-too).

## 📚 Learn from successful people around you

Successful people have enthusiasm for whatever they are into, whether it is the psychology, programming, medicine, teaching, or business. **They are talking about it, reading articles written by others who are successful, and happily busy with full schedules.**

Now imagine how you would be lucky meeting with and talking to them, learning from their experience and wise bits of advice.

>Is there anyone so wise as to learn by the experience of others?
—Voltaire

Thus, you can learn something you are curious about when you talk to them. Take advantage of this opportunity and learn from smart and successful people as much as possible.

## 🚧 Remove negative people from your life

Most people who never achieve success surround themselves with negative people.

**Negative people rarely change.**

The pessimist does not care about anyone but themselves. They actually like being negative. It makes them feel authoritative, alive and gives them something to do.

**Don’t try to change a pessimist! They will probably change you.**

Negative people are toxic, and so they can contaminate you with wrong thoughts, words, and deeds.

If you can’t remove such a person from your life, then at least limit your exposure to them.

## 💬 Conclusion

Of course, you shouldn’t have only people just like you.

It’s vital to have some variety in personalities, points of view, backgrounds, goals, and where they are in their journey.

This way, you are not going to be inside of the bubble that’ll make you believe you’re doing the right thing when in truth, you are about to fail grandiosely.

**Thank you for reading. If you have any concerns, questions, or opinions regarding this post, please [reach out to me on Twitter](https://twitter.com/ilonacodes)!**

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_Photo by Pixabay from Pexels_