Friends = Future: How to Guarantee Results in Life

How do you:

- Push past your limits?

- Stop doing bad habits?

- Act with extreme efficiency?

- Be a leader?

- Be responsible?

- Get in shape?

And do it overnight?

How does someone go from ultra-successful to:

- broke

- depressed

- addicted

- out of shape

in the record time?

You change their environment. Specifically, the people they are around.

If I threw a lazy person into Navy Seal Training, I bet they would change pretty quickly.

If I took a millionaire and forced him to hang out with addicts, pretty soon he would become one too.

Wherever you are in life right now, it's because of your tribe.

Your beliefs — they aren't really yours, they are the ones you've taken from your tribe.

Your personality? It's a mix of people you spend time with.

You are the direct reflection of the top 5 people you spend time with.

Spend time with losers, and you become the biggest loser of them all.

Spend time with the winners, and they will whip you into winning shape.

Best way to get big? Be friends with people who love going to the gym.

Not a single person on this planet whose best friend is a marathon runner is out of shape.

Best way to become a fast swimmer? Join the best swim team.

Best way to get smarter? Be friends with geniuses.

Hopefully this concept makes sense. Hopefully, it’s ingrained in your brain.

If you learn anything today, remember this:

But how do we take advantage of it?

Let me tell you what I have done since I first saw this quote:

They impact me, but it's fine I don't listen to their negative talk.

I'm going in a different direction than them, it's fine.

This is what I used to think (and still sometimes think) about friends (who are good friends) but don't have my aspirations.

After another week of falling off my habits and binge-watching YouTube, I realized something.

Whenever I spend extra time with these people, my mindset would start to degrade.

Again, it's not that these are bad people, I want to make that very clear. It's just that they are influencing you to go down their path.

If you're hanging out with people who enjoy alcohol and think it's fine to spend an entire day on their phone, that's the mindset that will get driven into you, whether you like it or not.

Trust me, I know how hard it is to let go of these people.

So I’m not going to give you the annoying advice of:

“oh just let them go. No big deal”

“You’ll find new friends”

“if you care enough you will stop being with them”

It would be hypocritical to give you this boring, lazy advice. Because that stuff didn’t work for me.

I still have friends (most of them in fact) are people who don’t have the same goals as me.

I came up with 3 ways to create your ideal tribe. To get fast results and to change your life.

1. lookout

2. online

3. role-models

They go from least to most actionable, and the third point is one of the most powerful ideas I’ve implemented.

1. lookout

Be on the lookout for people you meet (in person) that would be beneficial to your life.

This one is the least tangible of the 3, because it comes down to luck.

The best thing you can do is stay present. Notice how people are acting around you, are any of them doing high-quality things?

If you go around in public in your own head, you will never notice if the person walking right beside you could be your best friend.

Finally, if your lucky, you already have friends on the same path as you. Cherish those friends, and spend more time with them.

2. online

In-person would friends is the best, but it's much easier to find like-minded people online.

That's what I'm trying to develop—online friends who are on the same path.

To do this, yes, you need to use social media.

A strange term these days, normally with a negative connotation (wasted time, unrealistic opinions, fake) but social media has it’s purposes.

One thing to note, I don’t use social media consume. I'm use it to search.

Searching for people I could become close friends with.

How?

• join groups, communities (Skool, telegram)

• reach out to people (DM, email)

Remember: The key to making friends is caring about them.

Don't talk about your dreams, your successes. Talk about theirs.

Don't ask them to help you. Ask them how you can help.

3. role-models

This is the easiest to implement and potentially the most profound.

Remember: "you are the direct reflection of the 5 people you spend the most time with."

Why not spend the most time with your role-models? Spend time consuming their content, listening to them speak, reading their books.

Yes, it's definitely not as powerful as hanging out with them IRL, but you immense advantages from doing this online.

• You can learn from whoever you want, learn any topic, "talk" with them on your own time.

• your not limited to people who want to be friends with you. You can learn from the best of the best.

I hope you’re realizing how powerful this can be.

If you "reprogram your mind" so to speak, with the thoughts, beliefs, and ideas of the best in the field, you will be unstoppable.

Think of the areas in life you care most about (fitness, business, learning, leadership, speaking) and find people who are already masters in that area.

I call this your Top 5.

For me, my top 5 are:

Writing - Dan Koe

Speaking - Vinh Giang

Fitness - David Goggins

Business - Alex Hormozi

Mindset - David Dieda

For each person in my top 5, there is a specific quality or qualities I like about the person, which I would like to have in my life.

For Dan, it's his clarity and depth of information. When I read or watch his content I gain so much insight.

For Vinh, it's how engaging he is when he speaks.

For David, it's his disciplined mindset and being able to push through extreme suffering.

I love how Alex talks about business and his philosophy.

You get the idea.

For each person on this list, I've consumed hours of their content, watched YouTube videos, read books, and even bought courses.

This is how I'm working to reprogram my life and mind. I welcome you to join me—create your top 5.

Thanks for reading!

If you have any comments, reach out to me on Twitter @ethantu999, I would love to connect with like-minded people.

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