#4 Mind Your Surroundings

Another big part of working hard is who you spend your time with. The people you choose to be around with will affect the direction you grow in. Not everyone is worth being around, so you need to learn to pick your friends wisely. And I am well aware that sometimes you will have to work with certain people. If you can’t control it, you can’t control it. But in everyone’s day, there are a few moments that you can control. Your breaks are a great example. Will you spend them with the cool-kid slackers, or the experienced, hard working old dudes? The choice is yours, and it will play more of a role than you think.

Now take a step back and be honest with me-when you read that, did you think of spending all your time with all the boring over-achievers, rather than the people having all the fun? Gotcha! I actually think the first group that you need to make sure to be around are the people that can have some fun. Work isn’t always a fun thing, especially if you are putting in the extra effort to do it right. So try to be around the people who know how to crack a joke, or pull a harmless prank every now and then. People like that make the bad days good, and the good days better. But make sure that they know how to find the balance between getting things done and having fun doing so. Finding one without the other is more common than not, unfortunately.

And this will do wonders to fight against the temptation to quit. Honestly, I have had some pretty good jobs where I lost my enthusiasm because everyone else did. I had one job that was ten minutes from home, no overtime, no on-call and a team that praised me for everything I did. And I left because nobody else wanted to be there. More than half of my coworkers were constantly talking about quitting, so I started talking about quitting. The people you surround yourself with truly can change the course of your life. 

So be around happy campers and avoid negative nancies. What else? Well, let’s point out the obvious: be around skilled craftsmen. People who pour themselves into what they do and know how to do it well. This should be obvious, but we often neglect this one. Maybe it’s because we these people don’t like cutting corners, which means extra work. Maybe it’s too tiring to keep up with them. Or maybe they’re just annoying. I don’t know. Either way, good workers will turn you into a skilled worker too, so be around them and soak in their dedication and wisdom. Learn how to ask questions and to copy how they do things.

Speaking of questions, learn to take advice from everyone, but filter it out based on who's saying it. There was one place I worked at where I would tell new people that they would get two kinds of advice: what was the bare minimum and what was the brutal maximum. The slackers actually have good advice too-they can tell you what you absolutely must do to keep from getting fired. Miss those things, and it’s game over. But if you want to go the extra mile, listen to the dedicated. Either way, you will get something valuable. Just know how to use it.

So there you have it! The do’s and don'ts of coworkers. Take note of how the people you put on your friends list are affecting you. And if they aren’t lining you up to be where you want to be, then it may be time to put some distance between you and them. Because you will have to part ways with them eventually, so you may as well make sure that they are getting you to where you need to go, rather than holding you back from it. 

I pray that God surrounds you with the right people. And if no people are the right ones, I pray He gives you the strength and the courage to reject them all, and that you feel His presence all the more!

Until Next Time

May Peace be your Guide.