Achieving Your Goals and Dream Life – Step Six

 

First, I want to say HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! LETS MAKE IT THE BEST ONE YET 🙂

Achieving Your Goals and Dream Life – Step Six

Surround Yourself with Amazing People

We have so far discussed 5 critical steps to achieving your goals and dream life.  If you’ve missed the series, it would be helpful to go back and review what we’ve covered so far.

Sherri _friends_2013I am 100% confident that today’s step “Surrounding yourself with Amazing People” is one of the keys to the life I live.  I feel incredibly fortunate to have an amazing group of friends who like to participate in events and activities with me. Then it made me think that that’s what absolutely everybody needs!

If you want to be great, you have to surround yourself with great people. 

You are who you hang with – it’s called contagism – it rubs off!  If you want to be healthy and active, surround yourself with active and healthy people.  If you want to commit to eating a healthy diet, surround yourself with people who are also committed to that.  If you want to travel the world, surround yourself with others that have that adventurous spirit.  If you want to finish a triathlon, start hanging out with triathletes.  If you want to succeed in your career, find a mentor who has achieved great successes who can guide and direct you.  If you want to have a healthy relationship with your partner, surround yourself with friends who put their relationships first so they can offer a positive role model.  Bottom line – you are who you hang with!  So if all your friends sit around cursing and gossiping about others, you’ll find yourself doing the same.  If all your friends cheat on their spouses, then you may find yourself overstepping boundaries.  If all your friends are happy to live a mediocre life, you’ll find yourself settling also.  If all your friends are unhappy about their jobs and sit around complaining about it all day instead of doing something about, you’ll do the same.  If all your friends drink, eat pizza and chicken wings and sit around watching TV all day, that’s probably what you will do as well.  And don’t get me wrong, I enjoy living it up as well but, my friends and I all understand, we’ve got to earn it first!

Everybody needs people in their life who inspire them, challenge them, build them up, empower them, support them and encourage them to reach for their potential, their personal best, their dreams.

The opposite happens if you surround yourself with those who are negative, critical, and controlling and who steal your job and tear you down.

Some people will pull you up and others will pull you down – it’s your decision who you will give your time to.

It doesn’t necessarily mean you have to disown your current group of friends but here’s some ideas to add more activity into your social sphere.

  • Do you have friends who are doing things that you want to do and living life the way you want to live?  Start hanging out with them more!
  • Do you know people and/or companies who are participating in events and activities that are interesting to you?  Get involved!  Sign up!
  • Can you be the one to initiate more active events with your current group of friends?  Look for a local event that you could all do together. Maybe suggest a Warrior Dash, a short-distance Triathlon, a Golf Tournament, a Half Marathon, a Bike Ride etc.  Forward all your buddies the info and registration links to make it easy for them to get excited about it.  Be the cheerleader for your group.
  • When getting together with your friends, suggest a healthy restaurant option, a healthy potluck theme or at the very least bring healthy items to the get-together so you’ve got some choices.
  • If you have kids, be that positive influence and initiator of fun activities for them.
  • Hire a Personal Trainer or Lifestyle coach.  It’s their job to inspire, challenge, support and guide you to your Personal Best.  It may be the easy way to get what you need if your current group isn’t the positive influence you need.
  • If you want to thrive in your career, find a business mentor.
  • If you have a friend or current group of friends who tend to be a negative influence and detour you from your goals, and no matter what you do to try to instill a more positive, healthy, active, energy it doesn’t seem to work, you may want to spend a little less time with these friends.

And if you have kids, we need to be amazing to help them be amazing! And the best gift you can give them and the greatest expression of your love is your time.  There was a study done that asked kids of all ages what they would want from their parents and the number one response, regardless of age, was time.  So even the teenager who screams ‘I hate you’ and ‘just leave me alone’ in reality is just screaming for love and attention.  It is a sad fact that the average North American kid spends 5 hours per day watching TV and playing with electronics and only 5 minutes of quality time with their parents.  So offer the same positive influence to your kids that we all need.  Be their #1 fan and cheer leader and supporter.  I know we all get busy so you’ve got to ritualize it, just like with exercise.  Make it a habit to read together every night at bed time.  Schedule a girly day. Coach their sports team or volunteer at school.  Schedule family game night, taco night or decide which nights you will all eat dinner together.

Remember you become who you hang with so make your choices wisely.

Stay tuned next week as we tackle Step #7.

Sherri McMillan, M.Sc. has been inspiring the world to adopt a fitness lifestyle for over 20 years and has received numerous industry awards including International Personal Trainer and Fitness Presenter of the Year. She is the author of five books including “Go For Fit – the Winning Way to Fat Loss” and “Fit over Forty” and is the featured presenter in various fitness DVDs.  She is the owner of Northwest Personal Training in downtown Vancouver and can be seen running, hiking or cycling with her two children, Brianna and Jackson.  She can be reached at www.nwPersonalTraining.com or www.ShapeupwithSherri.com Note:  As an avid Columbian reader, you can redeem a 2 week pass at her world-class training studio to help get you started.  Contact 360.574.7292 for more details.  

Sherri McMillan

Sherri McMillan

Sherri McMillan, holds a master's degree in exercise physiology and has been inspiring the world to adopt a fitness lifestyle for more than 33 years. She has received numerous industry awards including 2010 CanFitPro International Presenter of the Year, 2006 IDEA Fitness Director of the Year, 1998 IDEA Personal Trainer of the Year, 1998 CanFitPro Fitness Presenter of the Year and 2005/2006 ACE Fitness Educator of the Year - Runner up. She is a fitness trainer, fitness columnist for various magazines and newspapers, author of five books and manuals including "Go For Fit - the Winning Way to Fat Loss" and "Fit over Forty" and the featured presenter in various fitness DVDs. She has presented hundreds of workshops to thousands of fitness leaders throughout Canada, Australia, Mexico, Jamaica, New Zealand, Germany, England, Spain, South America, Asia and the U.S. She is the owner of Northwest Personal Training in downtown Vancouver, the founder of WHY Racing Events & WHY Community, participates in various community fundraisers and can be found running, biking, or hiking around the community. Find more information at nwpersonaltraining.com.

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