The Power of People and Ideas

One of my mentors once told me that you are the product of the people you spend your time with, and this statement has been core to my actions and life throughout the last three years.  However, my perspective on this has expanded recently.  One of my friends proposed a change, instead saying, “you are the product of the people and the ideas that you surround yourself with.”  

This past weekend I had the opportunity to collaborate with friends and mentors on our goals from 2020, what we are all planning on accomplishing in our new year, and how we are going to make our goals a reality.  Throughout the few hours that we spent together, I was blown away by the people and the ideas that were surrounding me on my Saturday morning.  Everyone had the opportunity to showcase their progress through an elaborate excel “goals tracker”, a chalkboard with sticky notes, or even notebook paper; we all had our own unique way to measure and track the progress towards our dreams.  

After we spent time discussing our past and future goals, we then shifted gears more specifically into what inspires these goals and how do we stay motivated to press on.  Everyone seemed to have an idea that facilitated this; whether it was Kobe Bryant’s Be Better video, Simon Sinek’s Start With Why, Barack Obama’s The Promised Land autobiography, or even a social media news feed.  Every idea that we surround ourselves with influences our behavior and actions.

I have been thinking about this throughout the last few days as I was finishing reading The Handmaid’s Tale, spending time on Facebook, watching NBC News, the Bachelorette, and ABC’s The Shot: Race for the Vaccine, or even listening to The Journal podcast.  How were the ideas I was consuming this week influencing my actions later in the week?  While there is so much positive in ideas, there are just as equal opportunities to waste time and even negatively or incorrectly inform your beliefs and actions.  

As I move into what I hope will be a promising and hopeful 2021, I am committing to think more critically about the ideas that I am surrounding myself with.  To focus on balance where I receive my ideas and to intentionally pursue growth in myself by surrounding myself with the right and the right ideas.