“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.“ - Jim Rohn
This is a quote that’s been sitting and weighing on my mind a lot lately. In the past year I haven’t been spending much time physically around people, but, like many others, I’ve taken more to my social circles across the vastness of the Internet. I’ve forged new relationships with great people as a result, but other older relationships have taken a strain due to a lack of perspective, understanding, communication, and patience. Take the normal stresses of everyday life from within the home, to the work place, and out in public in general and combine that with the compounded stress of a global pandemic and the needless politicization on top of that and I can see why it may lead to a downward trajectory of my mental health and outlook on the future.
The Final Straw
What was the final straw for me were not only the reprehensible actions I witnessed on January 6th 2021 via live television and through various Internet livestreams (many from the perpetrators of the insurrection), but people in my social circles celebrating or encouraging the insurrection. A family member even attempted to gaslight my criticism of their praise for these insurrectionists, calling me a socialist and perpetuating the false narrative that “antifa” were actually the ones storming the Capitol in an attempt to make our President look bad. I immediately took action to reduce my contact with this person on social media.
That’s when I came to realize that I need to start surrounding myself with more positive and motivating people. People that not only have spiritual faith, but practical faith in things such as science, medicine, and critical thinking. By doing this it means I must distance myself from the negative, pessimistic, divisive, discouraging or conspiratorially-minded people in my life. As a result, I’ve decided to audit my social circles and cut those people out who I feel influence my psyche in a negative way.
An Open Appeal
If you are reading this and find we are no longer connected through one of the myriad of social networks that I interact with, I want you to know that this does not mean I do not want anything to do with you. I find your content not in the frame of mind into which I want to push myself. As a result I am limiting my interaction with your content, but I do not want to limit my availability to you. Do not think this means that I want nothing to do with you. If you are ever in a time of need - be it in need of prayer, words of encouragement, financial help, advice, a place to stay or any other variety of reasons - please feel free to reach out to me by any means necessary. I promise to listen, respond and assist however I can. Over time we may be able to reconnect through these social circles again, but until then distance is needed for a time of reflection on both of our parts.
I pray and wish you peace and happiness in the future.
Sincerely,
~Phil