Choose your peer group really, really well. There’s a lot of excellent science coming out and a lot of excellent research coming out that says the number one way to improve your behavior is to surround yourself with a peer group or social circle of people who are also playing at the level you want to be playing at. So if you want to be a high performer in terms of your productivity, populate your life with high performers.
Now here’s the science behind it. In the brain we have something called the mirror neuron system of the brain, and it dates back to thousands of years ago when we were living on the savanna and this mirror neuron system allowed us to model the behavior of the dominant people in the tribe. So if someone figured out a tool or figured out fire or a better way to survive, subconsciously this system int he brain allowed us to model the behavior. And I think this is pretty fascinating information.
Now, here we are in the modern world and what happens? Subconsciously we are modeling the behavior of the people we spend most of our time with. And so if you are around victims, you will start behaving like a victim. If you are around people who are mediocre performers, you will subconsciously start behaving like them. If you’re around people who gossip, who are not A players, who do not produce very much, you will subconsciously because of the mirror neuron system in the brain start performing like them.
Why else is it important to surround yourself with a peer set or social orbit of A players?Emotional contagion. And that’s a scientific phenomenon that simply says we pick up on the emotions of the people that are around us. And so if you are around a social circle of people who are inspired ,people who want to do great work, people who want to be ultra productive, people who want to be innovative, people who are relentlessly optimizing their work, their thinking, their creativity, just being around them will allow you to adopt their energy and their ways of being.