Do you know your friends?

From childhood, we were taught how to be and make good friends. Everybody needs friends because no man is an island. When younger, your friends can easily have more influence over how you dress, act and think than your parents do. However, the question is who ARE your friends? And what extent of your life is molded by their opinions? A big percentage of most teenagers’ lives is determined and influenced by their peers.According to one of the most successful businessmen who ever lived, the late Steve Jobs, the co-founder of the Apple Inc once said that, as a teenager, most of his decisions were made by his friends and that their opinions determined his road in life at the time. But he then realized that their influence was of no significance to his desired development, hence giving his friends opinions less attention. It’s good to have friends but you need to think critically about the friends you need in your life, the friends to associate with. Sit down and analyze whether those friends are shaping you positively and helping you require your desired goals.Ask yourself, are my friends helping me move towards my goals? Are they helping me discover my purpose in life? Are they encouraging me to achieve? Are they helping me with any progress in life? A friend loves at all times and becomes a brother in difficult times, goes a popular adage. However, there is more to friendship than merely having a shoulder to cry on. A young woman once told me, “Sometimes your ‘so-called friends’ get you into trouble and then abandon you!” When a real friend sees you going astray, they will do everything in their power to put you back on the right track, even though you may not like it. It’s true that many people do not like being told they are wrong even when it is for their own good.A friend who is not afraid to correct you no matter how hostile the reception is, is the kind of friend to hold on to forever.