We all have people who inspire us by their presence, without saying a word their presence challenges us to be at our best even if we may be feeling at our worst. I call these people game changers, they are there to help you step up your game and rise to your fullest potential.
At the same time you have glass ceiling custodians whose primary role seems to be to ensure that your life stays the same. They enjoy the security of being around you and the predictability and familiarity of your life. As a result these people are there to help maintain the status quo, the status quo which is the enemy of progress.
Game changers on the other hand have nothing but contempt for the status quo, they are always agitating for change to make things better. They are uncomfortable to be with because they ask uncomfortable questions, questions that sometimes catch us off-guard because frankly we haven’t thought about them even though they are relevant questions.
Game changers don’t let you settle, they keep you on your toes, while everybody around you celebrates your mediocre success for months upon months.┬á After about a week they start asking you what your next step is and where are you going to go next? Game changers are the people you need in your life, yet they are scarce.
So how can you go about finding and surrounding yourself with game changers in your life? First of all you will have to identify the things that you want to achieve in each area of life that is important for you. Once you have identified the changes you want to make and what you want to achieve. Then you can go ahead and identify the people that have already achieved what you want to achieve and request an appointment for a personal development interview. This is basically saying to them that you admire them as people and what they have accomplished and would there for like to come and interview them about what it took for them to get where they are today.
This may not always work the way you had hoped. You will obviously be met with obstacles and challenges but as with everything else in life the best way to overcome this is through courage and persistence. If things are going to work out the way you want them maybe you should invest a little time learning from people who know how to make things work, especially things that you want to have work out.
The thing is most of the time we surround ourselves with people that we either grew up with, that we work with or that have been our friends for a while even though the presence of such people most of the time may not be compatible with where we want to go. Chances are that the people that you spend most of your time with are people who have no idea of where you want to go or how to get there. They may not even have the same level of ambition that you have or the same amount of drive that you have. So as result instead of making full speed ahead, it is likely that the time you spend with them is spent by you trying to justify your goals to them or trying to tell them why you should do what you want to do.
Such people and such friendships may not be adding as much value to your life. There are people that are assets in your life that must be optimized and leveraged. There are also people who in your life are nothing but liabilities and who you must get rid of or at least lessen the amount of time you spend with them. Some of the people that are liabilities are by the way some of the most interesting, fun, entertaining and well meaning people you can ever get to spend time with. They have no ill intentions towards you except that their presence makes you less likely to achieve the things you want to achieve.
Having said that, it seems then that the most important thing for you to do is to identify what you want and then identify the people that have achieved what you want and then proceed to interview them. Some of these people may later on become your friends that you will spend time with, some may not but the important thing is that you will have learnt their lessons and will therefore speed up your own personal growth.
Lets Sithole is an author, speaker and coach and you can join him on facebook.
