Avoid Toxic Relationships
If you want to be successful, you need to forge Rich Relationships and avoid Toxic Relationships.
Toxic Relationships have certain unique characteristics:
1. Negative Types — They always seem depressed, down, pessimistic, angry, unhappy and ungrateful. They envy those who are doing well in life. They ridicule anyone trying to better their lives. They seem to always have a negative opinion. To them, the world is a mean, unfair and painful existence. They drown their misery in drugs or alcohol. They have very powerful biases. They see life as unfair and embrace any ideology that advocates for the punishment of those who are rich and successful.
2. Deceptive Types — They are perpetual liars. They cannot be trusted. They seek, by whatever means necessary, to take what is not theirs. They are adept at spinning the truth. They are experts in rationalising their bad behaviour. Nothing is ever their fault. They are never to blame. They see others as marks, targets, not people.
3. Critical Types — They are very critical of others. They seem to always have an opinion that is critical of something. They condemn and blame society, the government, their parents, the schools, their boss, their spouse, etc. Everything is a problem. Nothing is ever straight forward or simple to them. They complain about everything in their lives and every person in their life. They are very rarely happy and never grateful for what they have.
4. Backstabber Types — These are people you cannot trust. They are not only looking out for their own interest, they have a maniacal habit of hurting their relationships either intentionally or unintentionally. They have very low self-esteem, and confidence and do not like anyone who is trying to better their life. They love to gossip about others. They have no long-term relationships and move from one new relationship to the next, causing havoc wherever they go. The danger with backstabbers is that you never see it coming. They wear a mask when they are in your presence that belies their true selves. You only find out who they really are after the damage is done.
5. Financial Train Wreck Types — They are always deep in debt, borrowing money from their friends and family and never repaying that debt. They are perpetually unemployed, in between jobs, jumping from one career to the next. There is always one emergency after another and they have a nasty habit of calling upon you at the last minute to bail them out. As a result, they consume a great deal of your time and money.
6. Lazy Types — These types are always looking for the home run, quick fix, the easy money. They do not want to put in the time and effort to achieve success. They believe success is about random good luck. They approach others with business opportunities that can’t miss. They do not invest time in their relationships, in their careers or in their businesses. They gamble. They get others to invest their money in their latest schemes. They take irrational risk, rather than calculated risk.
7. Victim Types — Victim types have an entitlement mindset. They believe those who are doing better in life have an obligation to help those who are struggling financially in life. They see the wealthy as beneficiaries of mere good luck. Conversely, they see themselves as the victims of mere bad luck. They do not take individual responsibility for their lives. They do not blame themselves for their financial circumstances. They feel they just got a raw deal in life.
8. Addicted Types — They are addicted to drugs, food, alcohol, gambling, sex, risk, you name it. They have no control over their behaviour. They have no willpower. They always let you down. Their lives are a mess. Their relationships are a mess. Their finances are a mess. They are leeches who will suck the life out of you. Successful people employ a system in managing their relationships. Some have systems that can be quite sophisticated and utilise the latest in technology and software.
Whatever system you create for yourself, find a way to track various types of information about each of your contacts. Besides names, addresses, phone numbers and email information, you should capture other important data such as: professions, birthdays, spouse names, spouse birthdays, names of children, colleges attended, graduate school attended, law school attended, etc. Also track their hobbies, interests, and books they like to read, along with any other important data. “Important” means important to your contact.
REF: Rich Habits Poor Habits Yardney, Mic…