The reason why the Jim Rohn quote “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time around” is so popular, is because it’s true.  In The Art of Living by Epictetus, he has a similar quote about being wary of the individuals you associate with.

“Other people’s views and troubles can be contagious. Don’t sabotage yourself by unwittingly adopting negative, unproductive attitudes through your associations with others.”

Epictetus

The Dangers at the Workplace

This problem is more prevalent at your place of work because in many cases we spend more time with these people than almost anyone and many times it is not by choice.   If you work for someone else then there’s a good chance you do not choose who your coworkers are, many great relationships and friendships can come from people we meet at work, but we also can pick up bad habits and views from these same people. 

Study Their Characteristics

We need to be wary of the characteristics of the people we spend time around.  If our coworkers’ values and beliefs do not align with our own, we need to keep the relationship strictly business-like and politely decline invitations to spend time outside of work or to join in on unethical actions. 

Make Your Intentions Clear

When you make yourself clear on your actions and do not leave any gray area, people whose values do not align with yours will slowly begin to distance themselves from you because they realize that they cannot convince you to do the things they want.  If you are a person who does not drink, do drugs, or gossip at work, you maybe be called “lame” or a “loser” in the beginning but that is only because they are upset you don’t stoop down to their level or are envious that you have the self-control to not partake in those activities.  You will never find a hater that is doing better than you, remember that when you need motivation to carry on. 

A Final Word

While we do not have to live our lives with our guard up constantly, we do need to keep an eye on our surroundings especially if we see our actions and personality changing to something we do not value.  There is a chance it may be the people we are associating with that our causing a subtle change in us. 

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