What Influences you? (The power of Support — Personal Power Mastery)
What influences you? (The Power of Support — Personal Power Mastery Moment)
By Douglas Vermeeren
Success is never achieved alone. If you look through the entire history of mankind success is never a loners game. While individuals may have been recognized for various achievements, investments, business successes or world records none of them were alone when they accomplished the feat. When Neil Armstrong walked on the moon there were others on the rockets and rooms full of people back in Houston and Florida guiding the mission. When Sir Edmond Hillary became the first person to the summit of Mt. Everest he had several in his expedition to help carry the equipment. Even entrepreneurs like Fred Smith who created FedEx launched he had investors and associates who helped him build the company and the brand.
Success is never the result of a solo situation.
For todays article I don’t want to necessarily focus exclusively on your relationships with the people in your world. Those relationships are important to your success and you’ve probably even heard the old adage that your results are essentially an average of the 5 people you spend the most time with. I believe there is a lot of truth in that. But I also believe there is one area of our support and influence that doesn’t get talked about as often as it should be.
That area of support is our influence. What do you bring into your life in the form of influences? Where do you spend your time? Recently I had a conversation with some high school students at one of the schools where we shared Personal Power Mastery. It was very interesting to see where the spent most of their time through out he day. (And here’s the interesting part, as I spoke with these teens I found there are many adults who use their time in almost exactly the same ways.)
Social media — Things like Facebook, Instagram, snapchat and surfing the net without a specific purpose. (Adults might also include Linkedin) ………….. Total 5 -7 Hours each day.
(It might be interesting to also point out in a recent article I read in the magazine the Economist they pointed out that the average adult touched their phone approximately 2,600 times per day.
Video games — You’d think at first glance that this is an area that would be exclusive to teens. Who would have thought that adults spend a lot time gaming but then looking around I see many adults who are contributing incredible amounts of time to Gummy Drop, Farmville, Solitaire and the like. I read a recent report that shared that in an average week a corporate employee spends between 6 -15 hours per week gaming. And by the way that’s on company time. The teens confessed to……………………………..Total 4–8 Hours each day
Television — Television isn’t the new kid on the block. Ever since its invention television has been a regular fixture in the lives of those who own one. The one thing I have notice though is that although we have had the television for several decades now the program doesn’t seem to be getting any better. If I am being totally honest there is a lot of TV today that I don’t get at all. I have seen studies that estimates the time an average North American spends in front of the TV each day to be …………………….Total 7–12 Hours a day
There are certainly other activities we could pick on and point out but the point of this article is to invite you to simply consider more carefully the things that you are bringing into your lives as influences. What you surround yourself with eventually determines what you will become. We become a reflection of what we value most.
Now this article is about the Power of Support. As I observed and interviewed the world’s top achievers I could help but notice that they are very selective as to what they allow to influence them. They are very deliberate in their choices of where they spend their time and the ideas they will allow into their thinking. I invite you today to think about what you are choosing as your influences.
You’ve probably heard the saying “Garbage in, Garbage out.” When it comes to your mind. I was recently talking with a psychologist friend of mine about this concept and he was quick to point out that it is wrong. He suggested that everything we interact, especially the things we deliberately choose often has a very long lasting effect. While it true that some influences and the context in which experience them may have a more profound effect he felt that everything we have as an influence leaves some kind of footprint. He felt the saying should be modified to say, “Garbage in, Garbage stays.” It is a very long time for some influences to lose their potency in our mind and life.
I am going to conclude this article by simply stating the quote I have used to accompany this article. Success cannot exist unless it is fed.
If you want to create more success in your life you have no choice but to deliberately seek out ways to feed and influence yourself toward higher things. Seek out ways to spend your time (which is your most valuable and irreplaceable asset) in ways that will strengthen you and lead you closer to your great dreams. And the opposite side of this equation is that you are always feeding something in your life. If it is not success, what are you creating with your time?
Think about that.
#Douglasvermeeren #PersonalPowermastery #choices #thePowerofSupport #influence #Success
