Birds of a Feather Flock Together

We've always been told to "watch the company you keep, because it will ultimately affect the person we become". When we were young, our parents would try to keep us away from certain friends because they were "bad influences". We didn't quite understand it then, but as we grew older, we began to see that people would judge our character based on the actions of those that we kept closest to us.

There was a time that I didn't believe in the statement that "birds of a feather flock together" and that what those around me did had nothing to do with me. To a certain extent I still believe this statement, because we are in fact responsible for our own actions. However, I know that we ARE directly influenced by our environment, and that if constantly exposed to a situation or certain actions, eventually we will begin to unconsciously put ourselves into the same situations and make the same actions.

I can admit that I've seen the above in my own life-- in both high school and in college (and even so far back as middle school), I've had people accuse me of certain actions that were completely untrue, but yet they believed so because of the friends that I kept around me who had made those actions. I've gotten myself into certain unfavorable situations because I was influenced and/or encouraged by those who I kept around me. Now I'm not placing all of the blame on those individuals because like I said, at the end of the day I am responsible for my own actions, but the truth stands that if I had initially surrounded myself by more positive individuals, I likely would not have been exposed to those situations in the first place. With this being said, I now I make it a point to try and keep only those friends who possess the qualities that I want within myself-- positive attitude, respectful of oneself and others, focused on success, etc.

Our reputation is the most important thing we possess-- it affects what people think of us, and ultimately the person that we become. So if part of acheiving a favorable reputation is to watch the company you keep, how exactly do we rid oneself of those "friends" who are negative influences? I asked a friend of mine this question and his response was, "slow, but deliberate"-- but what about those friends who have been there for years, who have helped us through both the good and bad times? How do we just cut someone off and remove them from our lives for the sake of our own reputation?