You ARE like those you hang out with! Time to upgrade?

It DOES Make a difference who you spend time with! You've heard me (and many others!) say "what you focus on expands". If you surround yourself news and people who give you more evidence of how tough it is...it's easy to buy into excuses for your own results. If you want to attract and create more to be positive, happy and grateful about ... your thinking and positive emotional state are the best tools you have to start with. Is it time to upgrade your Rolodex and your experiences? Have you outgrown some of the people you hang out with? Or are the folks to spend time with each day inspiring and encouraging?

In 2010, I am personally passionate about what I am calling Social Partnering^TM. I'll be writing a series of articles over the next few months about how to use Social Partnering^TM and offering ways for you to use the concept to be more successful this year! I am kicking this off here and there will be more on this month's free Fossland's Forum on building more referrals by building your social partner team.

From expansion of your strategic partners to participation with positive people or mastermind groups, I see the opportunity to the average agent to excel and the extraordinary agent to soar this year. With social media tools and Web 2.0, our ability to reach out and use our good relationship social capital to enhance the value we bring clients and customers is expanded in miraculous ways. That doesn't mean we won't bring the online offline-in fact, that's the point! A powerful combination of expanding your previous reach and adding the new is going to bring happiness to those who master the skill. Our relationships then bring value to us! And, I know many of you are very, very good at relationships...so you already are a leg up here!

And, this is really where it all starts. You know that your attitude is so important to your success and who you surround yourself with can make it easier or harder, right. Which do you want this year: easy or hard?

Jack Canfield, the author and motivational speaker, has shared a personal story. He had become very successful, using the principles he learned from Clement Stone and the teachings of Napoleon Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich, (this book is still available free here). He says he had grown his yearly income to $1,000,000 and it was stable and steady there. He set, however, a goal of $10,000,000 but his income stayed stuck at $1M. As he ruminated about why he was stuck, someone asked him what the average income was of those in his mastermind group. This was his "ah ha" moment as he realized they were all making $1M too! Now, not a bad a group that most of us could benefit from hanging out with, but not a fit for his expanded dreams.

Have you expanded your dreams and not matched new partners, friends and supporters to those NEW visions? Or have you given up and become resigned that you can have what you really want because of some outside influences, like the economy or some other personal excuse? There WERE people having their very best year ever last year! Were you in that group? If you were, hooray for you! If not, now is the time to decide what you really want in 2010. Old strategies will not get you there. It's a brave, new world. And one filled with opportunity! How amazingly fortunate we are to be living here in the United States with so many freedoms to create our lives.

Here are some other actions that will help:

• Limit your exposure to the media and the "bad" news
• Add some daily inspiring messages to your life.
• Make a list of your 5 closest friends-do they reflect and support your dreams?
• Find one or two new friends to hang out with some more that are inspiring
• Buddy with someone who is as inspiring and committed as you want to be and become accountability partners
• Form or join a mastermind group and meet regularly to support each other
• Begin and end each day counting your blessings!

Put yourself in a place this year where you get the support and encouragement you need to stay focused, aligned and productive.

For 2010, take in less negative input and find the good every day and I promise you it would feel better. It may sound simple, but the best actions usually are. And, it is much easier if the people around you are aligned with the same thinking!