As Terez Rijkenberg - Strategy Coach says...

Be careful, there’s a virus doing the rounds and it’s super contagious!

Ok, before I spark fear and mass hysteria, let me just say: “it’s not quite what you think”!

Did you know that negativity and even negative habits are contagious?

It’s natural for us to be influenced by the actions of the people around us

- our brain does this as a survival mechanism and also to conserve energy.

So whether you like it or not, you will most likely be subconsciously influenced

by the negative habits of the people around you.

It’s called the SOCIAL PROXIMITY EFFECT!

So if you surround yourself with smokers, you are likely to pick up smoking.

If your friends like to gossip, you will likely engage in more gossip.

And if your colleagues always join the zoom meeting late, it’s likely you’ll start to do that too!

So to combat this here’s what you can do differently:

1.Become aware of negative habits you’d like to change

2.Ask yourself “who do I want to be and what positive habits do I want in my life”

3. And then surround yourself with people who emulate exactly that

4.You can create your own tribe of greatness.

But be sure not to let your tribe down or you might find others who want to spend less time with you!