Six people - Part I

Posted on December 13, 2005 - Filed Under Rant |

In high school, I was visiting a aviation/aerospace university.  I wanted to be an "Aerospace Engineer" and I found this university through a mailer.  My parents indulged me with a trip to this school during the break.

We were taking a tour and were standing in the cafeteria.  Suddenly, students started piling out of the cafeteria and into the courtyard.  The tour guide told me that the Space Shuttle was taking off and the students were going outside to watch it.

The doors burst open in front of me as I went into the courtyard.  There, I could see what I considered to be one of the greatest achievements that man has ever done.  The Space Shuttle Discovery was sailing upwards and my imagination with it.

As I looked around at the other students, I realized that I had come home.  I was a lost space geek that had found his home among thousands of other space geeks.

Yep, I had found my college.

There is no doubt this directly impacted my success at getting my degree.  Being faced every day with other students who were just as jazzed as I was about space, it was impossible not to stay motivated.

Several years ago, I was asked to make a list.  This list was to contain the names of six people that I hang around with the most.  My list changed a few times because it was hard to gage which "six" I hung around with the most.  When my list was complete, I anxiously listened to what the speaker would say next.

"This list is your future."

That statement had a direct impact on me.

The people that you spend time with directly affect your future.

The people that were on this list were people that I respected a great deal.  However, they were all working in jobs that they hated.  The "lack of money" was typical for the conversation.  And negative attitudes abounded like crazy.  Everything was viewed with suspicion and fear.  No one did anything to
improve their situation because, for every idea, there were always 10
reasons not to do it.

I have long advocated that my attitude has a bearing on my future.  And I believe this to be typical of everyone.  On my list most of the people were rather negative in nature.  If you have ever tried to remain positive amongst a group of "negative" people, you can see that the positive person quickly becomes negative.  Or the positive person leaves the group.

My list of people that I spend time with has changed.  And it’s nice to know that it consists of people who are positive, helpful and rather successful at what they do.  They aren’t all "rich and wealthy" people.  They won’t be on Robin Leaches "Rich and Famous".  They wake up every day and do what they want to do.  This, I consider, to be successful.  This alone has done more for my self-esteem and ego than anything other "self-help book" could have done.

While I don’t discount someone just because they have an opinion contrary to mine, I do discount someone if everything they say projects negativity, fear or suspicion.  I lived in this environment a good portion of my life and I refuse to live in it now.

Today, I had a negative question tossed my way.  It completely deflated me.  After having a great couple of months, one person completely brought me down.  That pained me to the core of my soul.  You would think that after all this time, I would have a good grip on what’s going on around me.  In this blog, I write everything that is going on and everything that I’m feeling.  I write the good with the bad.  If this blog seems like nothing but "good news" then maybe that’s because that’s all there is in my life.  I don’t lay awake at night, wondering if I’m going to succeed.  I don’t cringe when bills come.  I don’t pass-out when the mortgage statement comes.  Actually I’m happy because that’s one less tedious activity I have to do.

But this person projected their doubts and fears on me.

The good news is that the feeling of "hurt" did not last but a couple of minutes.  Before long, I was focused on my list of tasks to complete and thinking about what was coming next.  And this got me excited and fired up.  Before long, I was back to my normal self.

Speaking of positive attitudes, I will say "Thanks!" to those emails I got about yesterday’s blog entry.  I don’t consider it to be my best writing but I do thank YOU not only for taking the time to read it but for letting me know that you enjoyed reading it.

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