Usually when you’re trying to become better at something, you want to be around people you aspire to be like — as an example. If you’re always around people who are, let’s just say, wealthier than you, people often say it rubs off on you because you’ll tend to work harder just like them. Versus if you have people with very low self-esteem around you, you’ll likely have their negativity rub off on you.
So what I was thinking today was, when it comes to motivation, sometimes you want people at a similar level as you, because it can be demotivating to keep seeing people get ahead. And while this wasn’t business in particular, I was just watching some stuff with a walking group where there was nothing competitive about it. People were actually just keeping track of each other’s steps each day, I guess as a way to encourage people to be more physically active.
And there’s actually some people who just walk a lot. They walk so much that everyone else looks like they’re doing nothing. And unfortunately, even though it’s not a competition, people get demotivated by that. So they just end up not pushing ahead in terms of trying to do more than they normally would.
And that’s actually a great example of where sometimes you get too far ahead of yourself trying to compete with people who are, let’s just say, on another level — whereas it would be good to actually have people who are still kind of within your practice area or level of capability, because that will give you the confidence that, hey, you can beat them as well, as long as you put more effort into it.
So it’s something to think about: it is true that you want to hang around and associate with people who have what you want. Sometimes jumping too far ahead could actually be disastrous.