You can’t always pick your family but you can chose how you interact with them. Family is your definition. It could mean parents and siblings, it could include spouses and children. You decide who your family consists of and assess what role they play in your success. If you have a family that is 100% supportive on your road to success, then you are way ahead in the game called life. If you have a family that is not always as supportive as you need them to be, you need to get comfortable in having difficult conversations.
As I mentioned in the friendships post last week, if you feel you are not getting the support that you need from your family, take a look at yourself first and see what kind of support you are providing them. But again, as I mentioned, we don’t get to chose our family and therefore we may be stuck with people who are energy and life suckers and want to do nothing more than drive us up the wall.
If your success is important to you then you need to take control of your life, the people in it, and the path you travel. If you have people in your life who are not supportive, you need to either have a discussion with them on how they can be more supportive or you need to cut them from your life. Life is hard enough as it is and you don’t need people in your life who are only going to make it more difficult. I understand that there are some people who we cannot just remove from our lives, but we can control how we interact with them.
If you have someone in your life that is a life sucker, have that discussion with them that on your path to success, there is no room nor a need for people who are bringing you down. You want to surround yourself with people who will lift you up and support you. If this person cannot fill that role, then they need to less vocal and less destructive in your life.
When it comes to a spouse, it is important that you have frequent discussions about your success path. You need to make sure they understand how you define success and to ensure that their individual success path is in alignment with yours. You also need to know that they are going to be supportive in you reaching your goals and you should be asking how you can be supportive in their goals.
You cannot be successful on your own. You need to make sure that you are surrounding yourself with people who support and encourage you to do and be your best.
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