What influence do the people closest to me have on my life?
By: Feri Martínez
I have always believed that we are the people we are thanks to the experiences we have in our lives. That is why we are always in constant change, because the world around us changes and the people we live with do too.
I really like to imagine my life as a colorful painting. Each color is a person in my life. Some bring a lot of brightness and encouragement that helps me fulfill my dreams and others bring darker tones but full of teachings. Some colors are more like mine and others come into my life to contrast and encourage me to grow.
Each person has their own color (which, in turn, is created thanks to the colors of the people close to them) and that color is always in constant change. If we are able to identify where the colors we have in our lives come from and who are the people behind them, it is easier to change it consciously. That is to say; when we observe what each person brings us, we can take responsibility for our own color and decide what shades we want to fill ourselves with.
Most of the people around us come into our lives accidentally or circumstantially. We do not choose in which family to be born, who will be our cousins or in which city we will live. In the end, our first close circle are usually people who live a life very similar to ours or who share many socio-cultural contexts with us. But when we are adults, we can decide what kind of life we want to live and who we want to share it with.
We can spend our whole lives in a social circle that does not contribute to us, that makes us feel rejected or stuck and that is nothing like the color we dream of becoming. When we begin to choose the people we want to live with, we begin to listen to conversations that fill us up and help us grow, we do activities that give us energy and we begin to see how our color evolves day by day.
Most people want to live a life full of meaning and fulfillment, to do something amazing with it. Sometimes we believe that when we get that job, live in that house or be with that person, everything will be worth it and we will be full of joy. The reality is that the only time meaning and fulfillment can live is now. Nothing would have happened or will come to pass can make us fuller and happier than we can be right now.
So, even though it may be scary, let's opt for choosing our relationships consciously. Let's spend our time with people who help us grow, who support us and accompany us. Let's surround ourselves with people who motivate us and help us build the life we want to live every day.
Exercise
Think about the 5 people you spend the most time with.
Who are they?
What do you admire in them?
What are they doing?
How do they live?
What are you talking about?
What activities do they carry out?
Ask yourself if the answers have the same color that you would like to have.
I appreciate all the people who have been in my life. I recognize that in some way they have helped me to be the person I am. I choose to be the person I want to be. I surround myself with people who add to my life. I decide to be that person in the lives of others.