Just Like a Garden, Your friendships May Need some Pruning

Choices: Take 2

You, we, get to choose what and who we are. When creating my goals this year I can’t help but think about who will be with me through the process of attaining them.

Like anything in life, there are people who hinder you, people who help you, people who motivate you, people who you mentor, and people who are nearly inconsequential. It’s not that they mean nothing, everyone is important, but they don’t sway the outcome of your life one way or another.

SIDEBAR (There are many contributing factors to goal attainment but today we’ll focus on people in our lives)

So, if I get to choose who and what I am, I need to ask myself a few questions:

• How do I want to be characterized
• What do I want my legacy to be
• Am I doing what is necessary to achieve this
• What needs to be removed from my day to day routine
• What/who needs to be added to achieve this
• What is my passion and who shares that same passion

Do you know who your “ace in the hole” is and your #1 hitters are? I do and you better believe were on the same page and running this race together.

This doesn’t mean that I don’t have a variety of friends and acquaintances in different walks of life. I do.  But who I’m connected to daily or frequently will have a genuine interest in what I’m doing and vice versa and add some type of value to my life.

Commonality not only brings people together, it KEEPS people together

Think about something… think about your lifestyle. What do your day’s and night’s look like? What do you spend the majority of your time doing and if you had to choose one person outside of your immediate family, who is doing it with you? That person is a reflection of you. Do you like what you see? Do you like where you are headed? Do you like what you represent?

I’ve had to do this on many occasions, especially since we moved frequently and I constantly met new friends. This is where the pruning comes into play.   Just like a garden, we need some pruning and sometimes uprooting. Weed maintenance if you will.

Now, I am not saying extract everyone who doesn’t serve you or your purpose, I’m saying, it’s important to understand what role they play and do some maneuvering if necessary.

Sometimes to move forward,  or in to our destiny, we need to take a hard look at the elements of our life and do some trimming. I always have a few, including my waist line;) Some things are meant to stay and some things are meant for a time.  The Navy called this “force shaping”  In a very brief nutshell, Sailors would be sent home (discharged) due to budget cuts, overmanning in certain areas, etc. so they would create guidelines that would determine who would be let go.  The ones let go may have felt devestated, as if they failed, but really God was relocating them to their appointed place.  So never feel bad if you start shaping your time , interests, and your circle differently, God has something great in store for everybody and we all need to be strategically placed to live the life were meant to live.

Cheers to pruning and trimming!