H.O.P.E. Course: PROTECT Your Mind

Hi, it's Deana. This is the third video of the whole course. And we are talking about protecting your mind. Who do you spend the most of your time with? Is it family? Is it friends at school or work? Is it people in some sort of club or social organization? Do these people build you up? Or do they tear you down? There is significant data that shows peer pressure, or social pressure can change a person's behavior. The people with whom you surround yourself with have an enormous impact on your life. Even the simple act of observing others can affect your own motivation.

So who are the five people you spend the most time with on a regular basis? Are they uplifting and inspiring and motivating? Or are they negative and sarcastic and degrading? Maybe there's somewhere in between. If you have a specific goal in life, professionally, or personally, look to someone who has already accomplished that goal. How can you spend more time with them, and learn what path they took to get where they are? Maybe it's about reading a book and not physically talking to a person. Who can you spend more time with that models the direction you want to go? I want to use an example about this. If you have an addiction, say you you have an addiction to alcohol, and you have made a decision for yourself to stop drinking. Because you know, it's not good for you. And you know, it's causing bad and negative things in your life.

So if you keep going to the same bar and hanging out with the same people every night playing pool, or darts are whatever it is, their behaviors influence you more than you know. Now, if you say okay, well, I've decided to quit drinking, and I'm gonna go hang out with people who are mountain biking, or they're, you know, maybe playing video games, or whatever it is, but they're not drinking, that's going to also be a big influence on your behavior. So you have to choose if the people you're spending the most time with are a good influence, or a bad influence. And you have to decide for yourself what your goals are, and what direction your life and your behavior is going to go in. So when you have a goal, you write it down. Maybe it's on your wall, it's on your mirror, it's very important to you, what are the ways that you can get to that goal. You can ask for help. You can ask people around you, you can go to the library, you can reach out to me, whatever it is. But when you set a goal for yourself, especially if you're struggling and in a bad place with depression or anxiety, and you're setting that goal in order to be in a better mindset, a better physical health. It's really, really important that you think about these things. And I'm serious about reaching out to me, I would be happy to talk to you. So this is part three of the HOPE course where watch the next one on how to enjoy the little things.