[Episode #1] Why be mindful of your association | small town bigger dreams podcast

Why do we need to be mindful of our association? What's my story and how can you improve your associations? Watch or hear this episode of Small Town Bigger Dreams. Do you belong to a small town? Are you struggling to make it big in a big city? Do you want to learn principles to get to the next level? Well, you are at the right place. Welcome to the podcast Small Town Bigger Dreams, where I help you with some principles, guest interviews, and stories to help you make it big. Hello and very warm welcome to the episode 1 of this podcast, Small Town Bigger Dreams. Now let's start with today's episode, being mindful of your associations. Jim Rohn says, You are the average of 5 people you spend the most time with. Now, this is a famous quote which truly signifies, signifies why it's so important to be mindful of association. And when I say association, I mean people you sit around, people you talk to, people you travel with, people you do everything. The top 5 people of of that is your association, is your top 5 people, and you get heavily, heavily influenced by that. So by the law of the average, if your top 5 people are of the higher category, you improve. But what's most shocking is if you are the top of your top 5 people then by default you will decline, and that's not what we want to do, right? I— this is very important because I have my own personal story, and I actually call it in my book as 'Who's more lazy?' Now, this story is when I completed my intermediate or senior secondary from my hometown, and that was the very first time I was going out of my town and that was basically to prepare for engineering entrance exam. I was above average student to say. I won't say I was really, really good, but I was not bad. I was above average for sure, and I had the potential. So I was looking into getting into the premier engineering college, or as they say, Indian Institute of Technology or IIT. And I had really big dreams. So I went out of the town. My father arranged me to stay with the son of his one friend, and that to date I still consider is one of the biggest mistake of us. Now that, that guy, he was not a bad guy, it's just that he was not too much interested into studies. I wanted to do bigger things. He was not. I wanted to study a lot. He wanted to study, but probably not a lot. And that's where the law of average started ticking in. Slowly and steadily, I also became lazy. I became disinterested. And by the end of the year, I did not get admission neither into IIT, not into any NIT or regional engineering college that used to have, or even into any government college. So I had to settle into a private engineering college that to date I believe had most impact on me. Now I'm, I'm not saying that that is a bad thing that I completed from private college and all, but why— what I still wonder is that if I had a better association, I do not know where I would have been. I would probably would have been from a very premier college, maybe in an even better position. So it's really, really important that we are mindful of our association. So being mindful really helps you shape. Think of it that now if you are trying to be in a group of toppers, trying to be in the group of top professional, trying to be in the group of high achiever, it will drive you to perform at the peak level, perform at the next level, perform at the level where you want to be at. Par with the group, because you otherwise may be thrown out of the group. So it's very important that, you know, we change our association, or we keep our association as the high potential association. When I went to engineering college, I made sure that I am among the top 5% of the students in the college, and that helped me become the top 5% of the college. So your association plays a very, very major role. This might seem a small thing, but it's actually a really, really big thing. Now you might ask, Haritosh Srivastav, what you're saying is making complete sense, but I do not have any people who are in top 5% or who are high performing. How do I improve my association? So next I'm going to cover 3 specific strategies, 3 specific steps that you can use to improve your association. So number 1, try to find out who are the top professionals, top students, top people in that organization, and find out a way to engage with them. Maybe you can directly relate with that. I, I I remember when I was in college, I used to go to our senior who was university topper. So I used to directly go to him and ask for some advice. So that could be one way that you can change your association, seeking out people who are better than you, who are doing better than— who are doing better than you in any particular field, and get engaged with them, get some tips, insight, learnings from them. So that's Step number 1, or that's a way number 1 that you can improve your association. Number 2, there might be times then when you will not be able to find out such a person, uh, or in my— in many cases that person may not be approachable. In that case, you can always go back to books, podcasts, YouTubes, and other digital media platforms. Now I would say, if you have to spend your time and if you don't have those good people in your association, why not spend time with the great authors, with the great YouTubers, with the great podcasters to learn, to listen, to watch their, uh, their life insights and gain some more. So that is the second way that you can improve your association. So number 3, now if you have reached out to people and you're not getting more insights, you have gone through some of the books and you are getting some insight, but if you want to get more, participate in voluntary organization. There are so many voluntary organizations which help. There is Toastmasters for public speaking, there is Rotary, there are others, uh, Teach India is one of them. There are so many other voluntary organizations where you can really connect with great people who are really doing great service to mankind, and they have the leadership, communication, and other high-performance skills that can really elevate your association. So just to recall these 3 steps: number 1, reach out to people in your organization, college, or place, try to reach out to them directly and ask for feedback, ask for tips, ask for some insight. Number 2, if you're not able to reach such a person, try to read some books, listen to podcasts, watch YouTube videos of great authors, great writers, etc. And number 3 is participate in voluntary activities like Toastmasters, Rotary, Teach India, etc., to get connected with such great leaders. Now, if you apply these 3 techniques or these 3 tips, I am pretty sure your association will improve. So I'm going to give you a challenge before I wrap up this episode. In this month— yes, this is the new year, this is the January time— take out 10 to 15 minutes, go to a quiet place, and think about your top 5 people. Are they elevating you or are they bringing you down? This is a very— this is a quote by Gaur Gopal Das who says, our association is powerful. It can uplift us or bring us down. So that's it. That's for episode 1 of Small Town Bigger Dreams. I hope you enjoyed this episode, and if you liked it, please post it, comment which, which tip you like the most. Did you like the tips of getting, reaching out to people? Did you like the tips of reading books, podcasts, YouTube, watching YouTubes, or did you like the tips of going to a voluntary organization? I'm really looking forward to your feedback and that will help me shape the future of this podcast. So until next time, keep learning, keep growing, and keep going out of your comfort zone. This is Haritosh Srivastav and I'll be back in 2 weeks with another episode of this podcast. Thank you so much. Have a wonderful day ahead. I know you must be excited and want to be— What are the things that he could do?