One truth about life is that it cannot be lived in Isolation. No man is an island to himself. We all have circles. Circle of people we call friends, family, colleagues, mates, etc. We cannot live without interacting with them from time to time. Life without interaction is not life at all. This interaction over time exerts a certain degree of influence on us that affects how we live, decisions we take, choices we make in life and etcetera.

We all need associations and we all are. We are all connected or related somehow to somethings or someone.

What interactions resulting from associations does best mostly is to feed you with ideas and thoughts that inturn affects your ideology/perception of life. The attitudes you develope is fueled by your ideology and it has been established that your attitude does not only determine the altitude you can attain in life also how long you 'll last bat that altitude. This because a person with bad attitude can be launched in to atmosphere and attain a high altitude but he won't last there he will be like pieces of rock thrown up only fall back down due the force of gravity. But a person with good attitude will spread his wings and soar under the influence of aerodynamics.

So associations defines your ideology.

The kind of ideas assimilate /thoughts you tolerate determines the kind of attitude you develope attitude which in turn greatly influences the rate at which you accelerate in life.

In essence the kind of people you associate yourself with determines the kind of ideology you assimilate. the kind of ideology you assimilate determines the kind of attitude you develop, which in turn determine the rate at which you progress /accelerate towards achieving your set ambitions.

There is no association that is right or wrong on a general note. There is only associations that are right or wrong for an ambition or passion. Any association that is capable of putting your ambition at risk of been achieved or slows you down or even prevent you from achieving your ambition is a wrong association for you. The wrong association for you tends to feed you with the wrong ideology and helps you develop bad attitude which builds up your dead weight, pulling you down whenever you attempt to soar high or pull you back whenever you attempt to move forward. The right association propels. It pushes you forward but the wrong association pull you back and down.

Consider Psalm 1:1 Blessed is the man that walks not in the council of the ungodly not stands in the way of sinners nor sits in the sits of the scornful. The groups described here, the ungodly the scornful, the sinners are associations that are wrong for someone who is ambitious or passionate about fulfilling God's purpose and will for his life. My interest is in the action listed. Walk, stand and sits. When you consider it well you will notice a trend from walking to standing to sitting. This in a way describes a pattern associations influences us. Walk simply connotes following, stand implies agreeing and sit implies joining. From following you tolerate and assimilate when you have assimilated enough you begin to agree to support and finally you join in when you join you become.

Strong Determination amidst wrong association is nothing but effort in futility. It's like an athletes competing with a weight tied to his waist. You are putting much effort but cannot attain the required speed to compete but being drawn back. Any association that hold you back should be cut off, Any association does not set your tail on fire should be avoided. You need a circle that is even more desirous of you achieving your ambition than you.

The people you associate with or the people you call friends tell who you are because the have at least 50% of your character and ambitious of at least 50% of what you are ambitious of. Your friends does not only tell who you are; they also tell where you are going be. Kind ng Solomon said in Prov. "Show me your friend and I will tell you tell you who you are" but if I may, show me your friend and I will tell you your end. There is no way you will associate yourself with cultist / armed robbers, etc and will soon not end up in the grave or at best behind bars.

It is said that one of the easiest way to succeed in life is by surrounding / associating yourself with those that are desirous of succeeding as much as you do. So if you must get to your desired destination, make friends with those that will help you get there at a good pace.

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See you in the next episode.

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