The people you are surrounded by

Hornbach, a German construction market, claims in his recent commercial: “If you are surrounded by ugliness, you will eventually become ugly yourself.”

Seems unlikely to be a well claimed phrase at first read, but there is way more truth behind it than many would expect. The Hornbach phrase points to all the materialistic things around you and how you get affected by it. An example for this is the university I previously attended. To make it simple: the university is ugly and it just wasn’t a nice place to go to. Otherwise, imagine a university inside a beautiful renovated castle. Ask yourself, where would you feel more motivated?

Even more important, it is about the people who are around you. Yesterday, I went to my first CrossFit practice. CrossFit is well known for its motivation from other “crossfitters” during practice. It’s about encouraging each other and pushing one another. Let’s imagine yourself surrounded by these athletes who train regularly and keep an eye on their nutrition. Then compare it with a group of people who work during the day thereafter meet for a casual hang out and drinking beers in the evening. In which group do you think you will more likely achieve your goal of getting in good shape?
When planning on learning a new skill, which group do you think this possibility would be higher: a) encouraging people who are eager to learn new skills on their own and are willing to help you however they can; b) discouraging people who joke how crazy you are and why you want to waste your time with exercise? Sure, this is an exaggerated example, but you get the point.

The same also applies for other areas of your life (e.g. drinking habits, smoking, positivity, language, activities, success, and overall mindset). The people you choose to hang out with will have a profound impact on the person you are/will be.

Have you ever thought about the importance and impact of who your spend most of your time with?

Appendix:
Even though, I wanted to write about this topic for a long time, I got inspired by Joel’s post again and some phrases are shamelessly copied from him. Plus, thanks for pre-reading Kristle Haynes.