How to know who you'll be in the Future...

I love the quote that says, “Future you will just be an exaggerated version of current you.” What a cool thought. If you’re a generous person now, you’ll probably be more generous in the future. If you you’re a grumpy person now, you’ll most likely be more grumpy next year. If your nice, you’ll be nicer; and if your lazy, there’s a good chance you’ll be lazier.

Self awareness is a major key of knowing who you are today. So how do we make sure that in 3-5 years we are growing in the areas that we hope will bring out the best in us? Well, its strongly connected to this line, “Show me your friends and I’ll show you your future!” I believe it was Stephen covey who said, “you are the sum amount of your 5 closest friends.” We’re usually taught at a young age that the people we hang around have a huge impact on our lives.

Proverbs tells us, and almost every high school weight room has it on the walls, that ‘Iron sharpens Iron.’

I’m thinking about that this morning because one of my closest friends has a birthday today and I couldn’t be more thankful that he was born. This friend has stretched me and expanded my capacity in a major way over the last few years. To the point that we are in a group text called “the 5 am club” and almost every morning we text each other when we’re up. The goal is to push ourselves to be early risers so that we can practice our disciplines that help make for a healthy and growing life.

Bottom line, have you taken inventory of the people you spend the most time with? This could even be who your following closely on social media. If you look back over the last couple of years and the people around you (and you) aren’t growing in the areas that you would hope for, maybe it’s time to prune and expand your circle.

I don’t think it means you have to dump everyone in your life, but today could be the day that you begin to lead your squad into higher levels. Send an encouraging text, invite some friends to join you in a new discipline, or just throw out a book that you could start reading with your homies!