subject: How To Craft A Motivating Social Circle [print this page] Your social circle has a huge influence in your life. It affects your career, your health, your romantic relationships and your overall level of happiness.
Research has shown that most people earn about the same as their five closest friends. That means that if you want to be more financially successful, it makes sense to start with your social circle.
Having a strong social circle can help you kick start yourself into gear. After all, if everyone you know is exercising every day, that will of course help you get yourself to exercise as well.
Here's how to craft a social circle they'll have you fired up about living your life at a high level.
==> Determine What Kinds of Friends You Want
The first step to crafting a great social circle is to determine exactly what kind of people you want to be interacting with.
It helps to have strong established goals when you do this. Knowing exactly what you want in life will help you figure out what kind of people you want around you.
Let's say you want to get healthier. The first step would be to figure out what kind of characteristics you want to people around you to have.
You might come up with things like:
* Consistently exercises
* Excited to workout
* On time
* Generally upbeat
* Likes to help other people succeed
So on and so forth.
==> Where to Meet New Friends
Meeting new people to bring into your life can be tough. Here are a few ways to do it.
The first place to turn to is your existing social circle. If you already have friends that match the criteria of the kind of people you want in your life, the easiest way to meet more people like that is to host mini-events.
If you want to meet more fitness oriented people, host a weekend hike or a cycling group. Invite five of your friends and ask them to invite people too.
If you want more financially savvy people in your life, ask an investment advisor to come give a talk and invite 5 of your friends. Ask them to each invite a few people as well.
If you don't already have people in your life that fit the bill, you'll have to start from scratch.
Start by going to networking meetings. In business these might include Toastmasters, Chamber of Commerce or Business Networking International. For fitness, these might include weekend hikes, fitness meetups or group classes.
If you hit it off with someone you like, make plans to hang out again in the near future.
==> Cut Out People Who Are Holding You Back
One of the trickiest aspects of creating a motivating social circle is that in addition to making new friends, you also need to learn to stop spending time with people who drag you down.
It can be very tough to end a relationship, especially with someone who you've known a long time. But it's often necessary if you want to move forward in life.
To summarize, if you want to create a social circle that'll motivate you and move you forward in life, you should start by figuring out what kind of people you want to be near. Then deliberately meet these people, follow up with them and make plans to meet up again. Finally cut out the people in your life who drag you down.
