Do you realize that who you choose to spend most of your time with will eventually shape your life? Friends can challenge you to achieve things you never imagined. But, if you let them, your friends can also cripple your dreams.
Now, this however isn’t a call to cut ties with every friend who exhibits any of the following qualities. The perfect friend doesn’t exist, but you should make sure you’re not letting these types of friends be the primary influences in your life.
1. The “Tell’s You What You Want to Hear” Friend
Imagine you have terrible body odor and your friend does not tell you the truth about it. It simply means he/she does not have your interest at heart. These kinds of friends tell you what you want to hear because they enjoy some certain benefits from you.
Now, this however isn’t a call to cut ties with every friend who exhibits any of the following qualities. The perfect friend doesn’t exist, but you should make sure you’re not letting these types of friends be the primary influences in your life.
1. The “Tell’s You What You Want to Hear” Friend
Imagine you have terrible body odor and your friend does not tell you the truth about it. It simply means he/she does not have your interest at heart. These kinds of friends tell you what you want to hear because they enjoy some certain benefits from you.
Close friends who love you and want you to succeed will point out your flaws and shortcomings not because they enjoy doing it but because they can’t bear to watch you continue down a path that might lead to your destruction.
2. The ‘No Ambition” Friend
If you have a group of friends that all they ever want to do is play games, watch movies, compete with you for the highest score on candy crush and have no plans mapped out for their lives in the long term, then you need to be very careful else you become like them! As Francis Chan once said, “Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter.”
Surround yourself with people who want to make the world a better place and do well in areas that matter.
3. The “Attention Must Be On Me” Friend
All.Eyes.On.Me.All.The.Time! Do you have friends like this that are jealous, insecure and always want the spotlight (even yours) on them all the time? And here’s the big one: their lives are full of drama. They live a real-life soap opera.
These friends are toxic because they are always takers. They take your energy, joy and time plus they will never celebrate your successes. They can’t! The gods of spotlight and attention won’t allow them celebrate you.
True friendship is a process of both give and take. Friends should be able to celebrate you.
4. The Negative/Pessimistic Friend
Negative friends are exhausting. They drain your life and enthusiasm. Take for instance you have a great business idea and then you go on to share it with your negative/ pessimistic friend. They will thwart every possibility of it ever happening by pointing out all the reasons why it will go bad. They leave you feeling like the world, in general—and your life, in particular—is hopeless.
5. The “Unforgiving” Friend
Friends that find it hard to forgive carry a lot of bitterness and resentment around. They spend a lot of their time and energy seeking revenge. Make friends with people who forgive easily and model forgiveness
In essence, choose your close Pals wisely. They will impact who you are in the present and who you will become in the future.
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