Friends

Friends 2

Last week, we discussed how much friends really mean and how much impact they have in our lives. If you didn’t read last week’s article, kindly go read it in the stories section of this website. It is tagged “Friends 1”. This week we would be discussing on how to differentiate increasing friends from decreasing friends. Here are some vivid differences between increasing and decreasing friends.

1. Increasing friends talk about personal goals, plans dreams, and purpose most of the time while decreasing friends gist, laugh, play, and have fun most of the time.

2. Increasing friends constantly learn from each other while decreasing friends are constantly giving something out — time, energy, resources — without getting any value in return.

3. Increasing friends challenge each other to do more while the only challenge decreasing friends give is on devaluing things.

4. Increasing friends are both mentors and mentees of each other while decreasing friends always avoid talking about the important things that will improve the quality of their lives.

5. Increasing friends move each other towards their personal goals while decreasing friends move each other away from their personal goals.

Are you friend worthy?

Everybody wants increasing friends isn’t it? We all do but it is quite pertinent to note that inasmuch as we strive to avoid demeaning friends to improve the quality of our lives, we must also strive to be friend worthy. In other words, as you check your friends to determine if they are improving your life, you must also check if you are improving their lives.

The law of correspondence says that your outer world is a reflection of your inner world. So it is who you are on the inside that would determine the type of people you have around you on the outside. A footballer mostly has footballer friends. A writer mostly has writer friends. A dancer mostly has dancer friends. You cannot expect to have a an inspiring friend if you are not an inspiring person yourself. So the rule is simple: whatever you seek in your friends, model it first and then your life will attract people of the same kind to itself.

What is essence of everything you’ve been reading from the beginning of this article up to this point if you cannot put them into action? Useless isn’t it? Of course, it would be if action is not taken. This is why I have designed three action exercises to help you start making use of what you have learnt in this article.

1. Now that you know the differences between an increasing and a decreasing friends, take some minutes to check every of your friends and decide which ones you will keep and which ones you will start avoiding.

If you are having second doubts about avoiding a friend, remember that you are a tank that isn’t yet full and you cannot avoid to be connected to a tank that is lesser in quality and quantity to yours. You need friends that have a fuller tank which you can drink from their cup of wisdom.

2. If you were to choose an ideal friend, what qualities would the person possess? What would his or her greatest values? What would be the person be like health wise, mentally, socially, physically, emotionally and every other aspect?

Make a decision to start modeling all of those qualities in your own life now.

3. Pick a regular time frame to check if there’s any friend you need to stay away from before he or she starts influencing you.

Were you impacted? If yes, kindly drop a comment and share this post. Thanks for reading. ☺️☺️☺️