The Surprising Way to Shape Your Future

The people around you influence the shape of your future.

“Show me your friends, and I’ll show you your future.” Anonymous

Shape your future by choosing your relationships.

4 Ways People Shape Your Future

#1. People normalize behavior.

Hang with complainers, develop a dark attitude.

Ownership becomes natural when you spend time with people who take responsibility.

What feels normal eventually feels right.

#2. People shape ambition.

Ambitious people expand your sense of what’s possible.

Complacent people make mediocrity comfortable.

Are you surrounded by comfort and affirmation? Who’s calling you to rise?

#3. People strengthen accountability.

It’s easier to keep commitments when the people around you keep theirs.

The standards of your friends become the expectations you live by.

#4. People influence identity.

You see yourself through the expectations of the people around you.

Eventually, you think, “I’m the kind of person who does what people like us do.”

Choose people who bring out your best.

Shape Your Future

Angela Duckworth challenges people to seize situational agency. Read: Situated.

You can’t choose every circumstance. You can choose your influencers.

Don’t simply ask, “Where am I going?”

Ask, “Who am I going with?”

Two questions:

Who makes you better simply by being in your life?

Whose future is better because you’re in their life?

Show Me Your Friends and I’ll Show You Your Future – Leadership Freak

This post is inspired by Angela Duckworth’s latest book: Situated