The crux of today's dialogue centers on the deliberate selection of individuals within our personal and professional spheres, emphasizing the importance of surrounding oneself with those who genuinely uplift and support our aspirations. It is imperative to engage in a thorough evaluation of our relationships, discerning who contributes positively to our growth as opposed to those who may inadvertently drain our energy or hinder our progress. Angela Anderson Knittel draws from her extensive experience to illuminate the significance of fostering connections that inspire self-discovery and deeper human connection. As we navigate the complexities of our inner circles, we must remain vigilant in ensuring that our interactions are reciprocal, nurturing an environment where mutual support flourishes. This episode invites listeners to reflect upon their own relationships and to consciously curate their social circles for a more enriching life experience.

About the Host

Angela Anderson Knittle is a corporate trainer, theater director, mother, and natural guide who finds wisdom in everyday moments. She brings heartfelt clarity into conversations about connection, compassion, and personal growth. Angela’s Living Room is where her lived experiences become gentle, honest insight for anyone wanting deeper relationships.

Podcast website: https://angelas-living-room.captivate.fm

Takeaways:

1. The significance of intentionally choosing the individuals who populate our inner circle cannot be overstated, as their influence directly impacts our personal growth and happiness.
2. Engaging in a thorough audit of our relationships is essential to identify whether those around us are supportive or draining, allowing us to make informed decisions about our connections.
3. Healthy relationships are characterized by a balance of giving and receiving; therefore, it is crucial to assess whether we are reciprocating the emotional support we receive.
4. Recognizing and distancing ourselves from relationships that consistently leave us feeling small, anxious, or drained is vital for maintaining our mental and emotional well-being.
5. The process of self-reflection and emotional regulation is paramount when making decisions about relationships, ensuring that we act from a place of clarity rather than heightened emotions.
6. Building a supportive community involves selecting individuals who inspire us and share our values, which is essential for fostering personal ambitions and growth.

If You Enjoyed This Episode

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Come on in.

Welcome.

Oh, I'm glad you're here.

Please come in and have a seat.

Let's see where the conversation takes us.

Welcome.

So happy to have you here today.

So it is as of filming, we are in the beginning of November.

We just had the soft launch party for this very podcast.

It was exciting.

All of the friends who were able to show up and celebrate and watch the trailer and get hyped and excited for our official launch, which from filming will be one week from today.

So that's very exciting.

This is all becoming very, very real.

And for those watching, we just had Christmas two days ago, so Merry Christmas.

I hope Santa Claus brought you everything you asked for and your stocking was stuffed full with all of your favorites.

So I hope that however you celebrate this season, that it was full of joy and love and connection and hopefully it was lacking in family drama and division.

So here's hoping, which is actually kind of a beautiful segue into the topic that we are going to be chatting about today.

It's all about choosing your people, right?

Who's in the inner circle?

Who gets access to the inner sanctuary?

Who do you walk through life with?

Who do you celebrate your life with?

And are they the right people?

Are they the right people?

Are they the people who are helping you grow and helping you build towards your dreams and your goals and your ambitions?

Or are they draining you, discouraging you, giving you unnecessary roadblocks or creating havoc or chaos in your life?

Who are you spending your holidays with?

Who are you walking through life with?

Who are you allowing to influence your life?

Who are you allowing to narrate your potential?

Like, who are you letting in?

So today we're going to talk about choosing your people on purpose.

It is part taking an inventory of who is in your life and how are they impacting you?

Are they equal partners in your relationship?

Are they carrying their weight?

Are they there for you?

Do they show up for you like you show up for them?

Right?

It is important that we take an inventory and know who's who within our circle of influence that's personally, professionally, within our friend groups, within our community.

Who do we let influence us?

Who do we let inspire us?

Right?

Who do we model ourselves after?

Who do we mentor with?

Okay?

So when we start this inventory process, right, what we're looking at is who fuels you and who drains you.

And we kind of want to column these guys out.

We want to know where people land in this and it is possible for somebody to do both.

And that's actually a Pretty reciprocal relationship.

If at times they drain you, but then alternately they show up to fuel you when you need it, that's not a bad thing.

Where we need to get real careful is who's showing up just to drain and never showing up when you need them with that emergency fuel for you, right?

So let's start with the positives.

Who fills your tank?

Who shows up when you need them to be there?

Who helps you feel supported, seen?

Who helps you feel inspired, like you can do anything?

Who celebrates your growth?

Who gets excited when you achieve?

Who gets, you know, they turn into your cheerleader when you are working towards a goal, encouraging you, building you up, reminding you that you can do what you set your mind to, that you are strong, capable, confident, right?

That you are dedicated, that you're resilient.

Who fuels you, who encourages you to take care of yourself, who challenges you to rest, right?

Who challenges you to fill your bucket?

Who checks in and goes, hey, you've been doing a lot for the people around you.

What have you done for you lately?

Have you gone and fill in the blank, right?

Because how we recharge is so personal for me.

I'm a girly girl.

I like to go get my nails done and I go get my pedicure and that man, that's my self care.

I love that.

You know what else I really love after a stressful day and, and I'm tired and I worked real hard.

I love me a super hot bubble bath with a nice glass of wine and some candles.

It's heaven.

I love it.

And so I make sure that I build time in to be able to treat myself to those things.

I budget my nails into my monthly expenditures because that is what one of the ways that I take me time, right?

It might look different for you.

You time might be getting to the beach so you can take a walk.

It might be hitting the trails at your local park.

It might be getting into the kitchen and making some good soul food, right?

That comfort food that, that triggers nostalgia and memories.

Maybe it is deep cleaning your house, maybe that's how you fuel you.

I'm not here to judge what you do to recharge.

What I'm saying is, who encourages you to prioritize yourself, right?

Who brings calm, especially when you're not?

Who brings laughter?

Do you have that person in your life that you can be in tears and you call them up and you pour out everything that's going on and when you hang up the phone with them, you are laughing, right?

Who brings a sense of purpose to your day, right?

Who fuels your imagination?

Who fuels your ambition?

Know who those people are.

Those people are treasures.

And as they pour into you, when we audit, we need to self audit.

Are you pouring into them equally?

Are you giving back what they're giving to you?

We need to make sure that we're having the impact on the people that matter to us, that we want to be having.

That takes some self reflection and it means being open to some feedback like ask them if you don't know, you might not be.

I say this just because I want to make sure that we are valuing the treasured people we have in our lives.

The ones, the ones who, who fuel us and fill us.

We want to make sure we're returning the favor.

So places you can look for these types of relationships, it isn't necessarily an intimate partner, right?

We have all sorts of relationships, all kinds of connections.

A close friend who listens without judgment, who you can be your authentic self with and not have to worry about them speaking ill of you behind your back.

A mentor or a colleague who pushes you to be your best man.

I've got some examples here.

I have had just some profound professional relationships that have truly altered how I show up professionally.

Right?

I had a. I had a director who saw the potential in me and, oh, put me through one of the most painful mentorships of my life.

Before going into these meetings, I would sit at my desk and cry.

But it's because she recognized that I could do more than what I was doing, that I had much greater potential than what I was delivering on, that I was developing some slacker habits and that she was seeing it and she wasn't going to tolerate it.

And she made me meet with her once a week and report out my full productivity and account for my choices and my prioritization.

And she really helped me learn how to hold myself accountable to a deadline, How to get things done by a due date, and how to proactively communicate and why it was important in a professional setting.

Right?

And those principles, learning the importance of those things and mastering those things.

I am now highly regarded in my profession, appreciated by my team.

I don't miss deadlines and due dates.

If there's a problem or an obstacle in my workload, my boss knows about it as soon as I do, along with some potential solutions or if I have no idea how to fix it, you know, candidly asking for guidance.

But it's because somebody cared enough about me to pour into me some hard truths.

And I was smart enough even in My stupid youth, to recognize it as the opportunity that it was and to not fold under the pressure, not quit and walk away, not reject the guidance, but take ownership of what I was doing wrong and correcting that behavior and moving forward, right?

But it.

What's funny is I haven't worked for her in several years, and she still pushes me towards excellence.

And she's not alone.

She's in some good company.

I've got others who poured into me and taught me in different ways and different things.

Do you have a family member whose presence feels grounding, that you feel connected to your heritage, to your history, that you feel supported and loved and a part of?

And it's a really sad thing to say here, but not everybody has that in their family, not in their blood family.

But we are not limited to those that we are biologically connected to.

We can build family, right?

We can build a community of people that we love and support and we're loyal to and who love and support us and are loyal to us.

A partner or a community that shares your values and your dreams, right?

They're outside of that nuclear family and our extended family.

There's the greater community, right?

There are clubs and causes and organizations that need skilled, ambitious, motivated people to show up, who want to do some work to make the community a better place.

And if you have shared values with folks you're gathering, whether you're building that community to build homes for the needy, to do community programs and projects, whether it's a book club that you belong to or a community theater that you support and participate in, right?

There are all sorts of different ways that you can find your tribe and find the people who will see you and appreciate you and pour into you and receive what you have to give.

Because relationships at their core are about both giving and receiving.

And to have healthy relationship, you have to do both things.

You have to be able to give and you have to be able to receive.

And if only one of those things is happening in a relationship, it will not sustain that imbalance.

Now that we recognize who we have in our tribe, who we have in our community, who supports us and fulfills us, we have to think about the other influences because I guarantee for most of us, that did not account for everybody in your circle, right?

There are saboteurs among us, And it may not even be overtly intentional on their behalf.

It could just be how they exist, right?

It may not be malicious.

The parasite isn't trying to kill the host.

It's just trying to survive, right?

It's not malicious intent on the parasite's part.

It's just survival.

It relates in relationships too, my friends.

It relates in relationships too.

Who leaves you feeling small, tense, like you're walking on eggshells?

Who leaves you feeling exhausted after time spent together?

Who drains you, who makes you feel defensive and as though you're being judged, or as though every interaction is going to lead in some type of alterc.

Verbal, emotional, mental, physical.

We should not be hurting each other, right?

If you're in a relationship and somebody regularly injures you, whether that is through physical violence, emotional manipulation, mental abuse, any of those, that is not a relationship you want to maintain, that is where we need to start making decisions that protect our peace, that ensure our safety.

Okay?

So how do we figure out who is draining us?

Who often takes without giving, whether that be your possessions, right?

They just come in and assume that what is yours is theirs, and they can take it and use it and abuse it and destroy it and lose it, and not be accountable, not have to return it, repair it, right?

Those who take emotionally, whenever they have an emotional need, whenever they are emotionally dysregulated, they reach out to you so that you can be there for them, to support them, to absorb that emotional dump that they want to gift you with, right?

They share all of that emotional garbage with you.

But when you're the one who had the bad day and you call them so that you can unload some of your emotional garbage, suddenly they're not answering the phone, they're not returning the text, they're not available, they're busy.

They can't right now, get back to me later, maybe another time, until.

And that's how the story remains, until they have the need again.

And then all of a sudden, they've got full availability to spend time on the phone with you, to get together with you, to impose upon your time and your emotional peace, right?

Sometimes they will be demanding of your time.

Everything has to be what they want to do, when they want to do it, and when it's your thing, your people, your priority, suddenly, well, that's just not.

We can't do that.

Ask yourself.

Well, actually, let me step back before we ask the next question.

I don't want to move past this without talking about the emotional bank account.

Each and every one of us, every person that we are in relation with, whether that's a professional relationship, a colleague, a peer, a boss, right?

A subordinate, whether it is a familial relationship, father, daughter, mother, sister, brother, spouse, cousin, auntie, uncle, et cetera.

Every relationship, even casual, communal relationships, the grocer, the pharmacist, the woman at, the receptionist at the doctor's office, anyone that you encounter with any type of regularity, we establish an account.

Healthy relationships.

The deposits balance out with the withdrawals and they keep the account in the black, right?

Now, sometimes people aren't good about making deposits into that emotional bank account.

So if you have somebody who is constantly making withdrawals and not making deposits, you're giving them emotional credit, right?

But here's the thing.

You're the one paying the fines and penalties.

How much, how many fines are you willing to pay for somebody else's debt?

How many disappointments are you going to carry?

How many frustrations are you going to harbor because your needs in that relationship are not being reciprocated?

Maintaining.

Now, listen, do we need to have perfect balance on a daily basis in those emotional bank accounts?

No, because some days, some days folks don't have them in it to make a deposit, and all they can do is withdraw.

And if that happens occasionally here and there, it's not a problem because on other days they do make deposits.

And so if you look at the quarterly spreadsheet of that relationship, you will see that over the course of those three months, it really, it balances out.

They're staying neutral in their balance.

They're not negative, and maybe even they're carrying a positive balance.

Maybe they're pouring in more than you're even taking, right?

And listen, there are generous emotional partners who love to pour in.

So you may have some folks who, not only are they not running in a deficit, they're running with some pretty powerful deposits in that account.

They're maintaining a nice high balance.

They got good, healthy.

They got that 800 FICO score on the emotional credit system.

We want to be careful of the folks who are rocking them 420s and five hundreds.

I'm making light of this, right?

I'm giving us something kind of funny that we can laugh about as we think about it.

But if we take the emotion, if we take these relationships and we were to put them in a spreadsheet, do they balance out?

If they balance out, then that's a relationship worth continuing the investment in.

But if it doesn't balance out, then you have to think, what is the purpose of this relationship?

What is it serving in my life?

Is it helping me on my journey or is it hindering my journey?

I can't make these decisions for you, my friends.

Right?

But what I can encourage you to do is to do the Work to complete these audits of these relationships.

It's a healthy practice.

To ensure that what we invest, we receive back, that we're being reciprocated in care, concern, in love and respect.

Right now, does this mean that everything needs to be equally tit for tat?

Well, no, because you might be able to provide certain things I can't provide, but I'm going to pick up in other places, in other ways, right?

We're looking for equity, not equality.

Okay?

We want equity in these relationships because not everything is equal.

Equal.

You know, you can't compare apples and oranges.

They bring each unique nutritional value to the table.

Right?

So you know me.

I love my analogies.

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And now back to the show.

All right, so what are some examples of what we're talking about?

Like somebody who is constantly criticizing with you, right?

They nitpick.

Everything you do, nothing you ever do is good enough.

Is right, is acceptable.

Everything has to have some could be better, could be different.

Why don't you.

You should.

Why couldn't you be more like this?

If you did it this way, it would be better.

And smart people do it this way.

And if you knew what you were doing, you could do it this way.

So those constant criticisms, man, they can eat away at our self confidence.

They can eat away at our resilience and our self respect.

Also, there are folks who like to compete with you, right?

And listen, competition can be a beautiful thing.

Competition can be incredible.

Competition can push you to strive and achieve more than you ever thought possible.

There is beautiful, healthy competition, but there is also bad competition.

There is toxic competition.

If your desire to win is so strong that you feel it necessary to sabotage your competitors, that's not healthy competition, right?

That's narcissism.

That's not being able to accept that you might not be the best.

Healthy competition wants to ensure that everybody is starting from the same starting point with the same tool set.

What they do with those tools is what's going to determine the outcome.

Unhealthy competition is wanting to make sure that somebody else starts out with fewer tools.

So I love the show MasterChef, right?

And during one of the seasons, it's.

It's a fantastic show.

If you've never watched it, it Takes home cooks and has them compete on specific cooking exercises.

Cooking specific dishes with certain criteria in a limited time.

And what you earn at the end of it is an opportunity to be a head chef at a Michelin star restaurant.

So kind of a big deal, right?

It's a fun show to watch.

And sometimes that competition gets really cutthroat.

Now they'll be given an item that they need to make, and then a limited amount of time.

So they have to dash into the pantry and grab their ingredients and then grab the tools they're going to need and go to their station and then create.

Well, sometimes they forget to grab a thing that they need, maybe even an important thing that they need.

And it's always funny to watch how people react.

Like the episode that I'm thinking of, I forget what dish was being made, but the woman forgot to grab butter, and she's like, what are you gonna do without butter?

She goes, I'm gonna ask, and hopefully somebody will have butter to spare.

And she asked the people immediately around her and, nope, sorry, can't help you.

Nope, can't help you.

And she gets to the one competitor, and he just reaches over and hands her the butter.

And the judges, of course, immediately come up to him and says, we noticed you gave her the butter.

Aren't you worried that by providing her that ingredient, she might beat you?

And his response was so insightful to his character.

I was instantly.

He became my favorite.

And his response to that question was that if not having butter is the only reason she beats me or is the only reason that I beat her, then I didn't win.

I don't want to beat somebody who didn't have what they needed to put their best forward.

If I'm going to be the best, I'm going to be the best.

And let me tell you, I was so impressed.

And what was really neat is, as the season progressed, he did that consistently.

Anytime somebody needed something, if it was on his workstation and he could give it, he did.

And the best part about it, he ended up winning MasterChef.

He won the whole competition because he didn't need to sabotage his competition to excel.

So good competition makes us better.

It hones us.

Bad competition is toxic and destructive.

And if you have to make somebody else fail so that you can win, you're not really winning.

What about that friend who only reaches out when they're having an emergency?

We all have that person that you see their name pop up on your phone, and you know the drama's about to begin.

It's about to go down.

Not sure what flavor it's going to be this time, but you know it's going to be wild, right?

And then when you have a need, suddenly they vanish.

They are gone.

They're not answering your phones, they're not returning text messages, Smoke signals are going unanswered, right?

Just nowhere to be seen.

That's a huge red flag.

That's somebody who is withdrawing, not depositing.

How about a colleague who spreads negativity or seeks to induce stress in the work environment?

Right?

Let me tell you, negativity in a work group is one of the worst toxins you can encounter.

It will stymie productivity and it can turn a good job into a hostile work environment quickly.

And it can take people who, if not enjoyed showing up to do their work, tolerated showing up and did their job efficiently.

Right?

And one negative person coming in can ruin that and make them dread coming to work.

And once somebody starts dreading coming into work, the quality of the work they do once they get there is going to go right down the tubes.

And you will see those folks seeking an exit, whether overtly by going out and applying for different jobs, hunting, updating their resume, networking, or covertly by sabotaging their work until they get fired.

I've seen that happen, too.

Listen, even sometimes our habits can be our saboteurs, right?

If it is your habit to stop on your way home from work, and.

I am not saying that people shouldn't have a cocktail after work, I love a cocktail.

I love a good mixed drink.

I enjoy a beer.

I like a glass of wine.

I love a daiquiri.

Margaritas.

Ooh, margaritas and tacos anytime.

Please, I beg you.

I'm always down.

But if your habit is to stop at the neighborhood bar on your way home from work and sit next to people who are miserable about how they just spent their day and are avoiding going home, and you sit and talk about how miserable and unhappy everybody is, and then you leave there after having a few cocktails, beers, or whatever, and then you go home having soaked up all that negativity, and you walk into your door, negative, you're going to.

Even if home was cheerful prior, walking in with that mindset is instantly gonna darken the room, right?

If you have a stressful job and you don't know how to regulate that stress and how to release it before you walk in your front door, even if you don't stop and get the drinks and the negativity, if you just come straight home from a job that you're miserable at when you walk through the door, you're walking that misery into your family, to your kids who now have eggshells strewn about the floor that they have to not, you know, try not to tread on.

So those types of habits our good friend social media.

I mean, as a podcaster, it's a little hypocritical for me to call out social media because I'm using the platform to promote these conversations.

But social media is what we make of it.

If you engage with negativity and hate filled feeds and you stop in your day and take the time to make negative comments on strangers, post that, don't add value and simply belittle or criticize a stranger you'll never lay eyes on, that could be a habit that is having a negative impact on you, right?

What social media feeds are we cultivating?

What you know, what signals are we giving the algorithm, telling it what to feed us back?

Environments can be draining.

There are some places that just.

Bring out the worst in you drain your energy.

If it's your workplace where you spend a bulk of your time, might be time to do some assessments on how we earn our money, right?

Listen, and I say that working a corporate job with corporate requirements, but I'm also fortunate.

And by fortunate meaning that I've worked very hard towards it, that I work for a company, I have a boss that that values my contributions and I have a team that I respect and that respects me and I have a very positive work environment.

I've worked in really negative work environments and I can tell you that I have made the decision to leave those places because of the negativity on more than one occasion.

It is not always easy.

It is scary to leave a job, especially now.

I am a big proponent of making sure you have queued up the next job before you abandon ship on the last job.

But there are times that the environment is toxic enough.

You simply have to make the move and trust that that next opportunity is going to present itself.

Once you are no longer being so negatively impacted by the toxic environment.

Sometimes you have to remove yourself from the poison, right?

Because you can't see past it while you're in it.

But those are case by case decisions, right?

How do we know if we're in that position if we're not doing these self checks, if we're not auditing, who's influencing us, how we feel in this space?

Is this working towards my goals?

Is this pushing me forward in my journey?

Or is it an obstacle that's holding me back from the progress I want to make, right?

So we've done the audit, and I have identified some problems, right?

I have identified some individuals who are taking, not giving, that there is no reciprocity, whether it is emotional, physical, spiritual, whatever type of abuse.

And it doesn't even have to progress all the way to them being abusive, right?

Obviously, if they're abusive, you need to make changes in that relationship, in that dynamic.

But it doesn't even have to be that bad.

It does not have to progress to that point before you lay down your boundaries and enforce them.

Okay, so how do I let people go without burning bridges, without becoming the toxicity I'm trying to avoid?

All right, there's processes to this.

First and foremost, start with clarity.

We do not make life decisions when we are highly emotional.

Repeat after me.

We do not make permanent life choices when we are emotionally dysregulated, right?

If I am really angry, really sad, really scared, really frustrated, I am not making life choices in that moment.

In that moment, I can decide.

I need to evaluate this situation, and I need to give myself time to regulate my emotions, bring the temperature back down and get logical.

And I am all about the feelings.

I am a vibes girl.

If something has bad vibes, if the energy isn't right, I am really reluctant to engage further.

Okay, I'm just telling you.

But if it is somebody who is a part of my circle, somebody I care about, and I am about to choose to.

To remove this person from my sphere of influence, I have to do it with clarity.

And I'm going to give you an example.

Several years ago, my husband and I were at a very rocky point in our marriage.

Very rocky.

It was rough.

I was on the cusp of ending my marriage.

He's very aware of where we were at that time.

And.

We were in the midst of one of our very few arguments.

Like, we were getting really heated with each other.

Voices were elevated.

We were throwing cards down on the table, right?

And.

At one point, Michael said something about.

And again, this was years ago.

So I don't remember our exact verbiage, but the gist of it was, are we just.

So what do you want to do?

Just end it all?

And I flat out told him, I said, I'm not.

I am not in the position to make that decision right now.

You do not want me making that decision right now, because if I make that decision right now, we all lose.

I said, we need to stop right now.

We need a break, and we need to revisit this conversation when I'm not this angry.

One of the only reasons we're still married at this point is because at that stage in my life, I had the emotional maturity to know I was not going to be making clear decisions in that moment.

When we're heightened, when we are angry, when we are scared, when we feel betrayed, that is not the time to make decisions.

That is the time to decide to evaluate the situation when we're calmer.

I'm not saying that we forgive whatever caused the heightened emotion.

I need you to hear what I'm saying.

I'm saying we don't make decisions when we're heightened.

We need to take time to evaluate why we got that upset.

What's at the root of it?

Is it something that they really did or is this an echo of one of my past traumas and I'm reflect and I'm projecting on them?

I need to do an inventory here.

I need to find out is my reaction this big and this strong because of them or because of me?

And guys, Our past traumas show up in our current relationships because we carry that baggage with us.

If we have not healed from it and getting past it and moving on is not the same thing as healing from it.

If it can still cause an emotional reaction, you have not fully addressed it.

You need to work through your shit.

My friends, therapy is a good thing.

And therapy can come in a lot.

Therapy isn't always with a psychiatrist in an office with a copay.

Ideally, if we could all get that, we'd be better off.

But I know it isn't available and possible for everyone.

But there are community counselors, mentors, people you respect, whether that is your church leaders, provided you have one of the non corrupt churches.

Right?

It can be professional mentors, it can be a family member who is trusted and offers wise counsel.

Right?

But you need to talk through it, you need to work through it, you need to analyze it.

Is this person taking more than they give?

Do you feel drained, small or anxious after you connect with them?

Is the relationship simply not aligned with your journey anymore?

And guys, that one, sometimes that one's the hardest one.

All right, so imagine a group of friends and you have ambitions of opening your own business, being an entrepreneur, growing something.

And all your buddies are into playing video games, drinking beer and watching sports.

Not saying that there's anything wrong with any of those activities.

And in moderation they're all perfectly acceptable activities.

But if that becomes your priority is engaging in those activities as the entrepreneurial spirit in the group, hanging out with that bunch isn't going to move you along towards your goals.

You have to be willing to put some distance between what they're prioritizing and what you need to prioritize to achieve your dream, right?

So if you dream of building up that lawn business, opening that storefront, opening a restaurant, opening a food truck, becoming a content creator, because whatever the thing is, right, you have to pour your time and energy into developing the skills for the thing that you want to do.

And you need to seek out mentors who are doing the thing that you want to do.

And amazing things happen when we curate, who we let into our inner circle, who we allow to influence us.

When we hang out with people who are doing things we are more inspired to do.

When we hang out with people who are achieving things we are more inspired to achieve that good.

Competition kicks in and you look at them and go, well, they can do it.

And I see what they're doing to do it, I can do that thing too.

But if you're looking around and the people around you are only numbing their feelings and wasting their time, that's what you're going to be inspired to do too.

Choose who's in that circle.

Be intentional in who you surround yourself with.

Thanks for swinging in today to listen.

Let's continue our discussion on social media.

You can find me at Angela's Living Room on all platforms.

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Have a wonderful day.