If your peer group consists primarily of moaners and complain-
ers, there are three options available to you:- Stay in the group and endure its continued influence.
- Fix the people in your peer group.
- Upgrade by finding and associating with a different group of
people with higher standards and greater success.
Take this opportunity to upgrade your peer group now, by seek-
ing others who are moving ahead and don’t be surprised at how
quickly everything progresses.
Clearly not everyone you associate with is a member of your
peer group. There may be people in your peer group or even role
models whom you don’t see very often, perhaps even some you do
not like very much. You may consider some people who do not
know each other to be part of your peer group.
DEFINEYOURPEERGROUP
Make a list of those people you currently consider your peer
group. Ask yourself if there is anyone in the group whose contin-
ued approval or acceptance requires you to hold yourself back
or who might be uncomfortable when you achieve the extraordinary gains
you plan for yourself. Now that you have your list and you have deter-
mined whom you want to be with, what have you learned? Have you no-
ticed who empowers you and who does not? Identify the people you want
less contact with and more contact with. How do you feel about what you
have discovered?
Knowing your purpose will improve your perceptions about money.
This is because, instead of the many conflicts you used to have about
money, money becomes simply an aid in the expression of your purpose.
Counterproductive thinking and behavior related to competition, consump-
tion, and comparison disappear. It quickly becomes obvious that compar-
ing yourself to others, whose purpose is different, is absurd.
Purposelessness taken to an extreme makes your life a futile attempt to
satisfy the most recent desire that springs from your unconscious mind to
conscious awareness. Such a meaningless existence satisfies no one.
Make sure you do this exercise. You may be surprised to find that the peo-
ple you currently associate with do not serve your greater purpose.106 Your Recovery from a Good Upbringing