Hey beautiful people, hope you all are doing very well today

Welcome back to the Young Black and Independent Show, where we discuss a variety of topics to help young black folks live lives that spiritually fulfilled, lives that are value added, lives that are less materialistic and lives that are financially independent.

Its your host Syl, and the topic of today's discussion is : Who are your Friends?

Hmmm... Who are your friends?

You all know I am obsessed with definitions, so let's dive into one.

According to the Oxford dictionary, a friend is person with whom one has a bond of mutual affection, typically one exclusive of sexual or family relations.

Hmmmm very interesting definition.

You most probably have heard the saying, "show me your friends and I'll tell you who you are"

On the back drop of the official definition, I decided to form an unorthodox definition of a friend which will be the back bone of today's content.

I am of the opinion that a friend is anything or anyone who can impact your life in one way or the other.
They often have the ability to influence your
-thoughts
-actions
-decisions
And your life in a general sense.

That's a friend.

You have probably wondered why some people are so close to their pet animals, or extremely loyal to a radio station host, or a TV series etc...

These are their friends.. They would put a hult to everything else to attend to these friends.

Friends are not only physical human beings like Mary, Kuden, Tracy.

Your friends are equally the books you read.

Your friends are the podcasts you are subscribed to.

Your friends are the movies you watch.

Your friends are the mentor you look up to.

Your friends are the Facebook, whatsapp or other groups you belong to.

Your friends are the YouTube, tiktok or other videos you consume

These unorthodox friends impact you life in ways that are beyond your imagination!

Having said that, does that make any sense to you?

A very wise man once said ;

"Your friends determine your values, and your values will determine your decisions. Your decisions will most likely determine your actions and your actions will most likely be reflected on the results you get" .

It definitely gets more interesting if we turn it around.

If your results are nothing to write home about, you should check your actions that led to the results you got.
If your actions were not so good, you want to check the decisions you made. And if your decisions where not all that, you must check your values. And if you values were not good, please check your friends immediately.

If you want to change your life today, all you need to do is change your friends.

What you consume is a direct result of your friends (the environment you're in, the physical friends you hang out with, the books you read or don't read, the Netflix shows you binge watch the YouTube channel or podcast you are subscribed to or not subscribed to).

These are the uncommon friends you must welcome with open arms today, in order to change your life for the best.

Number 1: Books
Books can be extremely resourceful for your independence. Warren buffet, the 6th richest man in the world recommends this and I quote " read 500 pages everyday. That's how knowledge works. It builds up like compound interest".

Books provide you with a compressed format of knowledge acquired by other people, decades of researched work and even solutions to problems that you face in different areas of your life and your business. If you live in a poor neighbourhood, or have not so good physical friends etc.. Immerse yourself in books and bask in that wealth of knowledge and wisdom that you wouldn't gain otherwise.

Number 2 : online research.
You probably have heard the saying " don't be Google frugal".
You can find a wealth of free information on serch engines like Google, Baidu, bing and yahoo.
Google however is the most popular amongst them, always ready to help you find exactly what you are looking for.

This particular friend can help you learn a actual information about your school work, your heath, your business, your relationship, your religion and much more to help you set the right priorities for your life. After all, even the bible warned us in Hosea 4:1 and I quotr" my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge "

Remember however, that not everything on the Internet is true. You must learn good research skills like,

- double checking that some other sources are in agreement with what you already found.

- verify the credibility if the information (academic or expertise)

Number 3: Audio Recordings

An example of a friend under this category is a good and solid podcast like the young, black and independent show. Instead of listening to gossips, focus on listening to value added programs that make you smarter, rather foolish.
A study performed by the Cambridge University found that "sample groups of subjects regularly make thesame assumptions about people's personalities, values, social class and even their ethnicity, based on their musical preferences!.
I found that mind blowing.
The results of this research definitely remind me of the " show me your friends and I'll you who you are" quote.

You may not realise it immediately, but the information you listen to has a direct effect in your hormones. Listening to enjoyable music like the one I have on the background reduces levels of the hormone cortisol in your body, preventing the effects of chronic stress. Remember that 60% of all illnesses and deseases are caused by stress. Chose what you listen to meticulously and wisely .

The last but not the least friends are videos.
You can consume video information via TV programs, YouTube, teacherTube, tiktok and so on...
According to a Elaine, a PhD holder in psychology, people who watch as little as 15 minutes of "negative TV news" have shown a rise in depressed moods, uneasiness, and a tendency to be more "catastrophic" about their personal worries.

Which is why focusing on positive and less dramatic news, movies or videos in general increases your likelihood of experiencing an increased of the productive immuno - globin A( which is one of our first four lines of defense against attacking micro-organisms).

So... I will end today's show by saying that instead of consuming music, videos, audios, and magazines that are a torture to your body and spirit, perhaps it's best to make it a habit of exclusively letting in only the type of content that impacts your life in all the good ways

Thank you so much for listening.
Please share this with all your contacts you watch all the negative news about covid 19, watch horror movies all day, watch despicable videos being circulated on social media and all the like..
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