There is a portion in the Bible that talks about how evil companions will corrupt good morals and character. The flip side of that is true i.e. with good companions; good morals and character are encouraged, cultivated, and enriched. The implications of whom and why we associate with certain people are colossal. If you are serious about being successful and making a positive impact you cannot carelessly associate with just anyone. Now that we are gradually settling into 2022 it is a good place to re-evaluate your associations. There are certain types of people you ought to associate with this year; here they are:

Visionaries

Being a visionary entails several descriptions of one key thing – seeing and planning the future. It talks about having foresight, being idealistic or utopian. If someone is a visionary they have positive ideas or outlooks about the future. Every great thing ever built in this world was birthed by a visionary. These are people who can see the end from the beginning. They can project themselves into the future and strategically navigate themselves there from here. Such people are not ordinary and typically think and function outside the current circumstances. They are serial optimists who never entertain negativity. You must associate with people like that. There is a lot to learn from them and you can even be a cardinal part of their journey. Even more, your interaction with them can condition you to become a visionary as well.

Mentors

Simply put, a mentor is a wise counsellor or teacher. This is someone usually senior or more experienced than you. Their role is to advise, counsel, or guide you in a particular trade or area. They provide personalized support and feedback in your pursuit of a certain goal or journey. You could call them your accountability partners or voices of reason. You can have several mentors depending on your pursuits. Let us suppose you are passionate about entrepreneurship, working out, and philanthropy. You can have mentors in every one of those areas. Regardless you can have a mentor for your life in general.

The biggest upside of having a mentor is safe and painless learning. Here is what I mean: mentors ride off their experiences to impart lessons to you. Learning experiences can be either through good or bad encounters. The pitfalls your mentor fell into you, as the mentee, will never fall into. This also means you learn important principles faster by simply being told (rather than through experience). A mentor had to search far and wide to get food; you are simply getting the food handed to you – that is the best analogy I can give.

Cheerleaders

I am using this figuratively to refer to someone who rallies support for your pursuits. This is someone who cheers you on as you go through life. Their continuous support energizes you and spurs you on even in times of weakness or discouragement. This is someone who believes in your worthiness and ability to succeed. When you succeed they genuinely celebrate with you. When you fail they console you and reinvigorate you to try again. They are your hype man as it were.

Cheerleaders always have your best interests at heart. As such they are highly emotionally intelligent. This can be seen in how they can assume the right emotional state depending on your status quo. They are emphatic which is why they go through your emotional episodes with you. You need to surround yourself with such people in 2022.

What are you going to do with this information? You cannot just acknowledge it and archive it in your head. You must practically use it in your life this year. Remember you are the protagonist of your own life i.e. you call the shots. If there are people who do not align with these types of people then you must cut them off. It might be uncomfortable to make such decisions but it is necessary. The total of who you are and what you will achieve (or not) is in greater part due to your associations. Deliberately choose to associate with people that add value to your life.