Short Reflection: Importance of healthy friends

Compared to most of my posts that I usually write, this one is going to be a little more on the serious side. Now I don't mean that it's gonna be a dull and boring to read, just something that I have been thinking about a lot lately. As I look at my life from where it was and what it has become so far, I've noticed how important the gym has been, which includes everyone that I have chosen to become friends with.

If you don't know me personally or didn't grow up with me as a teenager, then you prolly wouldn't know that I was into quite a bit of drug dealing and heavy drug use. There were times when I thought that I may not wake up the next day due to my lifestyle. However, one thing that always was the shining light in those dark times was the gym. I always felt amazing when I was in there working out and bullshitting with the other people there. I am the kind of guy who feels really guilty about things that I know aren't right, and something inside me was always telling me that I needed to smarten the fuck up and change my lifestyle if I wanted to be truly happy. Now it took me many years, and many relapses along the way to realize that the true happiness I was looking for was always there, I was just too clouded in my mind to notice it.

Even through my years at college I had relapses with booze and drugs, and started losing that passion for exercise and furthering my knowledge. It wasn't until I moved out here to Lethbridge and started attending University that I began gaining that intense passion for becoming the ultimate personal trainer and being the best Brett that I can be. It may seem stupid to many of you, but I have always dealt with issues of doubting myself and constantly doing upward comparison, thus lowering my confidence even more. I've slowly been working on getting rid of these negative psychological habits, and filling them with positive thoughts.

I've also noticed since starting this blog, and even the Demonator group on Facebook, that I am NOT an idiot like I originally thought. I DO know what I am talking about, and others rely on me to give them the straight up facts. Knowing that my story of lifestyle change and current success makes others look up to me , means the world to me. That is the main reason why I have such a passion for this career. I love to help others whether it be through improving their knowledge, sparking a passion inside them, or pushing them past limits that they believed were impossible to beat. Even if 1000 people read one of my articles and only 1 person is positively affected by it, that still makes me feel great.

When I'm in the gym bullshitting with friends, fellow trainers, or just random people, I feel like my true self. Even the random talks with fellow Demonators brings me so much joy. The people in that group are the type of people that I wish to constantly surround myself with because they have the same mindset as me. Constant self improvement and basically being like a family to support each other and push each other in every aspect of life.

I guess what I was really trying to get at with this reflection is that if you want to be the ultimate YOU , then you need to surround yourself with as many people that have the same mindset/passion as you. Whenever I would slip back into bad habits I would be hanging with people that didn't have the same mindset. A real friend that looks out for your best interests will not let you do stupid shit that can cause you to lose the focus and dedication. A real friend will tell you when you are being stupid and help you find a positive solution.

So get rid of those douchebags that aren't actually your friends, and go find as many positive people as you can.

Demon