Cultivating Success: The Influence of Your Inner Circle on Goal Attainment

In this episode of the Maximum Lawyer Podcast, host Tyson Mutrux explores the powerful influence of personal networks on goal setting and achievement. 

Drawing on scientific studies and personal anecdotes, Tyson emphasizes the impact that our connections have on our behavior, habits, and overall success. 

He encourages listeners to intentionally curate their inner circle, surrounding themselves with supportive and inspiring individuals. Tyson provides practical steps for evaluating and refining personal networks, including conducting a "five person audit." 

Take a listen!

Episode Highlights:

• 00:25 The influence of personal connections on behavior, habits, and goal attainment, citing scientific studies and examples
• 06:34 The importance of evaluating and removing relationships that hinder progress and prevent achievement
• 08:44 Intentionally surrounding oneself with supportive and inspiring individuals for personal and professional growth

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Transcripts: Cultivating Success: The Influence of Your Inner Circle on Goal Attainment

Speaker 1 (00:00:01) - Run your law firm the right way. The right way. This is the maximum lawyer. Podcast. Lawyer, podcast. Your hosts, Jim Hacking and Tyson Metrics. Let's partner up and maximize your firm. Welcome to the show.

Speaker 2 (00:00:25) - Hey there. It's Tyson. And today I have what I think is a pretty exciting topic, which is the profound role that our personal network plays in our goal setting and goal achievement. Before I do get started with that, though, for those of you that have been following me on social media, you know, I've kind of gotten into this cold plunge craze. And if this is something that you'd want me to cover on the Saturday show, I'd love for you to let me know about it. If you if you do want me to cover it, I'm happy to do so. If you do, just shoot me a text and I will be happy to. I'll talk about how I got started in it, my setup, how I use a chest freezer for my cold plunges.

Speaker 2 (00:01:06) - It's actually a pretty cool setup. If you want me to cover it, just text me (314) 501-9260. If it makes it easier for you, just shoot me a text with the word plunge and I'll know exactly what you mean. Just shoot me a text. I'd love to hear from you. All right. So this morning I was talking to my personal trainer, Scott Shooty. He also has this pretty excellent podcast. It's called Becoming the Ultimate Coach with the Jock and the Doc. He's his partner as a as a doctor. And they talk about a lot of cool things when it comes to fitness and coaching. But we were talking about how a mutual friend of ours is starting yet another business venture, and this is a guy that's already had a lot of success, very, very successful. And it really got me thinking about all of the great connections in my life and how much better it's made me. From Ryan McKean to Jason Selke to John Fisher, you name it. These have been amazing relationships for me and they've been instrumental to my growth as as both a person and as a lawyer.

Speaker 2 (00:02:15) - And I'd even say as a father, these roles, these people that have been in my life, I owe all the credit to when it comes to my growth, because without their wisdom, I definitely would not be where I am today. And if you've I'm sure that many of you have heard the quote from Jim Rohn, you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. This isn't just a catchphrase, even though I think that some people, they try to they like to use it as a catchphrase. It's not really a catchphrase. There's some science to this. There's a paper that's in the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, and they show that people who associate themselves with with others, they have the others have a significant influence on our behavior. They affect our habits, our mindset, our goal attainment. There's also a 2016 study from Harvard that shows that if a close friend becomes obese, this is really interesting to me. Your risk of obesity increases by 57%, which is insane.

Speaker 2 (00:03:19) - And that's just one example of how that how our habits, they closely mirror those that are around us. That's why I mentioned the people I mentioned before. Many of my activities, they really patterned the people that I hang out with. You can even look at history. A brief history just recently. If you look at groups that thrived due to this collective ambition, just look at Silicon Valley. It's a prime example. You've got a hub where innovative minds have thrived in clusters. You can look at a Stanford Business Review paper where they indicated that these collaborations, these environments, they could increase your personal your individual output by up to 30%. And I think this is why you've seen a lot of success with business incubators around the country where you've seen a lot of growth in these companies because they've got they've gotten these companies together and these collective companies have taken taken massive steps in growth when it comes to their businesses, their individual businesses. Now, you know, a positive circle, it's going to propel you forward.

Speaker 2 (00:04:24) - But just like that, a negative one can pull you backwards. If you look at the study out of the University of Memphis, they show that a 40% decrease in achievement can happen. When you you're around individuals that have that are negative influences on you, especially close acquaintances to you. Those can have the the greatest impact on you. So what we want to do is we want to focus on creating that inner circle. And the reason why is because this inner circle, it will boost your goals. It's going to boost everything around you, not only your goals, but your daily activities. But it needs to be intentional. That is an important part of this. Your actions have to be intentional. They have to be all your interactions with them have to be fairly strategic. So, you know, what does this mean? Well, this means that having coffee with people that are what Jason would call. A center of influence. You want to attend conferences where you know there's going to be successful people there.

Speaker 2 (00:05:29) - You are going to want to join groups that have goals that are aligned with your own goals. This is essential. You're going to want to network, but you're going to want to network with a clear intent. You're not going to network just for the sake of networking. You're not going to meet with people just for the sake of meeting with people. You are going to meet with people with intention. Some of you know that I. I like to garden a little bit. We actually didn't do a garden this year, but we normally do. But and just as a gardener, they prune away dead limbs and branches that allow a plant to thrive. That's a big part of it. We kind of sometimes have to do the same thing. We've got to call our inner circle to foster our personal growth. That's an unfortunate part of life, but it does happen sometimes. We had to get rid of some of the negative influences. So while building a supportive network, it's absolutely essential. Essential. It's it's equally it's equally vital to evaluate and remove some of these relationships that can hinder the progress that we want that can even inflict harm.

Speaker 2 (00:06:34) - I think many of you know what I'm talking about. And these could be relationships that are steeped in negativity. These could be employees as well. There may be complacency, there may be jealousy. These are all qualities that that can permeate throughout you, your own mindset and throughout your organization. So holding on to these ties can really weigh you down and they can prevent that achievement that you're looking for both both personally and professionally. So by regularly assessing and refining your social circles, you're really making room for people that are more aligned with for you, with your goals and their more uplifting relationships that help you ensure that that you're in an environment that consistently nurtures your aspirations. And I know that that may seem a little bit selfish, I get that. But it's about personal growth. And I would say that the people that have that negative influence on you are usually the selfish ones, not necessarily you, but how do we implement this, right? These are these episodes are for actionable takeaways. How do we how do we implement this? Well, I want you to carry out what I would call a five person audit list out the five people you spend the most most of your time with, and next to each name, I want you to write down the positives or negative traits about these people and how they have an impact on you.

Speaker 2 (00:07:53) - And I want you to really reflect on this list. And if you find any patterns that don't really align with your goals or your values, it may be time to make some changes. All right. I'm not. Maybe not. Maybe. Maybe the people that you surround yourself with are great, and that's perfect. I love that. But maybe not. But next, I want you to list the five people you would like to associate with and that are that are not in the five you just listed. And once you have this list, you can begin sort of finding out what circles they hang out in, what Facebook groups they're in, what conferences maybe they go to, and you can start to coordinate your networking activities according to that. But remember, you have to be strategic about this. And LinkedIn would be a really good tool to to find out this information. You can do a lot of research on social media, but you're going to want to actively seek out these individuals whose traits they mirror the aspirations you have.

Speaker 2 (00:08:44) - And I want to be clear about this. This is not about discarding friends, but about it's really about intentionally allocating more time to those who they uplift you, They challenge you and they inspire you. Those are the sort of relationships that that you're really looking for. And I kind of think about the words of Tony Robbins, who said, the quality of your life is the quality of your relationships. And that's such a deeply true quote because it really emphasizes the importance of surrounding yourself with the right people and the profound impact they can have on your life. You really have to curate your inner circle. You know, curating your inner circle isn't merely about comfort. It's it's a calculated stride towards success. It's really easy to to have a group of people that make you comfortable. But does that really get you to where you need to be? All right. I don't want to go too much further than this. I think you get it. Let's wrap things up. I do want to remind everyone to stay tuned for our next episode where I'm going to be discussing when it's time to add a seat on the bus.

Speaker 2 (00:09:58) - So basically, when it's time to hire or create that new role for a new hire. Until then, I want to remind everyone that imperfect action always beats perfect in action. Take care.

Speaker 1 (00:10:14) - Thanks for listening to the Maximum Lawyer podcast. Podcast. Stay in contact with your hosts and to access more content content. Go to maximum lawyer.com. Have a great week and catch you next time.