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Spiritans Sound Outreach is registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission of Nigeria.
©2024 Spiritans Sound Outreach
Website Made with ❤️ by Microfidelity

  6 TYPES OF INDIVIDUALS TO STAY CLOSE TO: Steve Obiakor

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It is important to note that there are some individuals who are probably the driving force you need to achieve your goals in life. In one way or the other, we all are human resources managers because we are social beings and as such, our behaviours are influenced rightly or wrongly by those around us. We also in turn influence the behaviours of some other people. In some other situations, we are saddled with the responsibility of bringing out the best in others. This article sets out to discuss six types of individuals you need to stay close to.

  1. The Inspirers/Inspired: When people inspire you, you look up to them. Would you like to be like this person in terms of skills, intelligence, gaiety, enthusiasm etcetera? This does not mean trying to be the person but looking up to the person while trying to be yourself. These are people who make you feel that you can do something and as a result you really become enthusiastic about doing it. Most times in life, the fear of failure keeps us from taking off or continuing a course. At other times, we’re just not ready yet, we procrastinate and postpone what should be done now till further notice. But when you are surrounded by those who really inspire you, the courage to move on and the determination to keep moving is consistently ignited. Sometimes these individuals inspire us directly through their spoken words, actions and gestures towards us; at other times, the inspirations come through the feat they’ve achieve for themselves. Remember that inspiration comes to only those who are disposed to it. That inner stimulation and positivity guarantee the positive effect of other people’s effort and achievements on us. Those who are not positive, rather than feel inspired by others, feel jealous of them. Therefore, to feel inspired, you must first and foremost encourage yourself and believe in yourself. Ryan Avery, a profound speaker on strategic communication once said,   ‘Those of us who are inspired create better products, find stronger solutions and deliver more impactful results’.

 

2. The Open-minded: The open minded individual does not restrict himself to the things he knows or believes. An open minded individual is willing to consider other beliefs, ideas and intellectual oppositions. The views and knowledge of others help us to enrich our own views and knowledge. Through open mindedness, we give a fair and impartial attention to the views of others and in the process, respect such views. According to Wayne Riggs, ‘open-mindedness springs from an awareness of the inherent fallibility of one’s beliefs; hence, open-minded individuals are more inclined to listen to, and seriously consider, alternative viewpoints’. Nobody has the monopoly of knowledge or ideas and there is no way to prove that personal views and opinions one has expressed is superior to that of others. However, it is important to differentiate between being open minded and being gullible. A gullible person changes his view to avoid pain or to gain pleasure. An open minded person does not give in to pressure; he/she gives in to a new information which he/she will then verify in due course. An open minded person would say things like ‘oh, I’ve never heard of that; I’ll find out,’ instead of saying, ‘it’s not true.’ ’But a gullible fellow would say, ‘it’s true’ even when he/she knows next to nothing about the subject matter.  An open minded person listens to you and does not fake it.

 

  1. The Motivated: The motivated individual is enthusiastic about moving on after a failure He/she does not look backwards or spend his/her productive hours brooding on a problem they probably cannot solve. They accept their mistakes, learn from them and zoom off to their next level experience. This is not to say that it is easy to forget mistakes or failure experience but that it is worse dwelling on them. Motivated individuals tend to be ahead of every situation. They don’t constitute nuisance, pain in the neck or liability to others. They don’t complain of their problems rather they tell you what they’re doing about it. They read a lot; they rise up early; they don’t use up the hours of the day; they make each minute count. They are very proactive, envisaging things and preventing them from going wrong. A motivated person can survive the most difficult of all times.

 

  1. The Grateful: Those who are always grateful for the smallest help given are fun to be with. They always encourage you to do more. Sometimes they try to find a way to increase your happiness as a result of what you have done. The grateful hearts know and believe that no matter how satisfied, highly placed, endowed, gifted etcetera they are, that others have played one role or the other in their lives. These are people who believe that life cannot offer everything; they are grateful for the little they have; they do not bother so much about what they do not have yet. Even though they pursue it with all effort, they are open minded. These are people who find it difficult to hold grudge in their hearts believing that nobody is expected to be perfect. A grateful person is that who knows that there can be no roses without thorns, no gains without pains, no rainbow without rains. They see more of what you have don for them than what they have done for you. They are grateful.

 

  1. The Knowledge Seekers: Staying close with knowledge seekers would transform your thinking and help you achieve your goals in life. The people you associate with will eventually influence your behaviours one way or the other. Knowledge seekers tend to sharpen their mind always, they tend to be eager to learn new things; they are not comfortable with the status quo in terms of learning and growing. They believe that whoever stops learning stops growing. They believe they don’t know it all and the more they learn, the more the room to learn. Staying close to such people would open up your mind to seeing beyond your today and make you see your tomorrow.

 

  1. The Constructive Critics: These are the individuals that always tell you the truth about yourself. Most times, these are hard truths we do not want to hear because they probably offend our sensitivity and as such, it is not easy having such individuals around. Sometimes, these people try to tell us these truths in most condescending and condemning manner thereby compounding our emotions and sometimes ruining our relationships with them. However, in principle, it is better to be close someone who tells you the truth irrespective of how you feel than to be close to someone who sings your praise even unto the grave.

These individuals exist in your friends, colleagues, families and obviously your spouse. One most interesting thing is that most of these qualities are inseparable. A perfect human does not exist but there are acceptable standards of behaviour that endows one to the rest of his contemporaries especially those one has to deal with in one’s daily life.  For those who are direct opposite of these qualities, make effort to change them if you are opportune to; if not, stay away from them.

 

 

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