High school was not easy for me. I never cared for the teenage wasteland parties. An exciting Friday night in my little Wyoming town was to drag main street and turn up the volume on our car radios. Girls got married, and guys got drunk.

I wanted to be somewhere else. I wasn’t the only one. Most of us decided to leave sometime in middle school, years before the idea hit consciousness in our senior year. Those who didn’t leave also knew by middle school that they’d never make the one-way trip out of town.

Over the years, I’ve noticed an interesting pattern: people who have a low opinion of their worth choose friends that confirm it. Maybe they don’t believe they deserve any better. Perhaps they’re too lazy to look for something better. Even worse, if they surround themselves with loser friends, they start to look like the winner of the bunch.

Not everyone who chooses to stay behind is a loser, so let’s define loser friends. They are people who:

• Are not supportive of you.
• Not there when you need them.
• Tend to be negative about everything.
• Agree with everything you say.
• Only show up when they need you.
• Have no desire to make their life better.
• Expect you to drop everything when they have a crisis.
• Tend to think everything that relates to them is a crisis.

Most of us have loser friends, toxic people who disrupt our world as soon as they come onto the scene. Wimps are people who are too lazy and too timid to cut ties with loser friends and move on so they can improve their lives.

It takes a strong mind to stick to standards and not default to what is easy. Are you mentally tough? Take this evidence-based, FREE Mental Toughness Assessment

We are the average of the five people we spend the most time with—Jim Rohn

Simply put, the law of averages tells us that the result of any given situation will be the average of all outcomes. We are influenced by the people with whom we spend the most time. They create the environment that influences the way we think, our self-esteem, and our decisions. We will interact with many people throughout our lives, but the few who are closest to us have the greatest impact on our way of thinking and our decisions.

Plato once said, “People are like dirt. They can either nourish you and help you grow as a person or they can stunt your growth and make you wilt and die.”

Pick the people you spend time with care—they create the environment where you will thrive or wilt. While we need different types of personalities in our lives to bring out the best in us, share your dreams and goals only with those who value them as much as you do.

Here are 5 Reasons you need to dump your loser friends so you can:

1. Surround Yourself With Friends Who Will Give You Honest Feedback

The Journal of Consumer Research recently published a study summarizing the difference between amateurs and experts. Amateurs focus on positive feedback and want to hear what they’re doing right to continue on the same path.

Experts do not care about what they’ve done right. Instead, they’re more interested in how they can make progress. They don’t surround themselves with sycophants and other bootlickers who don’t have the backbone to be honest in their feedback.

As entrepreneurs and business owners, your focus shifts as you become more of an expert in your field. Negative feedback does not affect your confidence, just as long as it’s constructive and honest.

How To Make It Work For You: It’s important to be surrounded by people who want the best for you and will be there when you need them. But it’s also necessary to keep people around you who will provide constructive criticism, not just vacuous positivity.

The author of the study above believes the onus is on the person who provides the feedback. Negative feedback is often buried and not very specific. Encourage your circle of friends to be specific and straightforward with their critique.

2. Establish A Benchmark For Your Inner Circle

We all have different friends for different seasons in our lives. It’s been said that we do anything is how we do everything. So, be intentional about the people you select to be in your inner circle. If you have a friend you wouldn’t recommend to a close family member, why do you spend time with them yourself? Remember, a wimp settles for loser friends because it’s the easiest path.

Choose dependable and honest friends. Select people you admire who show you love and respect and reciprocate your kindness.

How To Make It Work For You: Ask yourself whether spending time with this person will lift you up or drag you down. If you spend time with this person, will they help you to become your best self? Will you be happier after spending time with them? Will they help you achieve your most important goals? If not, find friends who will.

3. Make Room For A Mentor Or Two

Loser friends are not known for or respected for their knowledge and skillsets. They do not champion your success, nor have they expressed great confidence in your abilities. Turn that upside down, and you will have the perfect description of what you should look for in a mentor. You deserve to surround yourself with people who believe in you and are willing to build relationships with you. Above all, good mentors will always challenge you and encourage you to take risks.

One of the best moves you can make is to surround yourself with friends who see the potential in you that you may not even see in yourself. These are the people who give you permission to follow your dreams.

Enthusiasm is contagious. The best mentors are enthusiastic about what they do and believe their work provides both value and meaning. They want to share that excitement with you and, most of all, encourage you to have the same goals.

How To Make It Work For You: In your career, you will meet younger and older people. Don’t always assume a mentor should always be someone older. While older friends can be a beacon of wisdom, younger friends can keep you from getting too jaded in your work. It’s often refreshing to see the world through the eyes of those who are still anxious to learn rather than teach.

4. Recognize Narcissists For What They Are

Loser friends suck the life out of your aspirations because they always shift attention and energy back to themselves. They may listen as you voice your concerns, but notice how they manage to inject their own situation into the conversation. Suddenly, it becomes about them and their life experiences.

Narcissists are loser friends who belittle your problems. They may offer some level of sympathy and understanding at first, but they’ll soon shift the conversation into 1) how their problems are so much greater or unusual, or 2) how they solved a similar problem in the past and how great it turned out for them. On top of that, narcissists expect you to show perpetual appreciation for their assistance and presence in your life. All that’s important to them is what they want and what they need to do to get it.

How To Make It Work For You: Set boundaries. It’s difficult to reason or argue with a narcissist because they won’t listen or change. One of the easiest ways to get rid of loser friends is to limit meeting times. Limit contact with them. Everyone understands that the message you’re “too busy” to catch-up, is code for “you’re off my A-list.”

5. Walk Away From Weasels

Another type of loser friend is the weasel—the one who is sneaky, conniving, and always has a scheme. Weasels can adapt to almost any situation and manipulate it to suit their own needs. Not sure one of your loser friends is a weasel? Here are some characteristics:

Weasels can appear harmless to your face, which is why you need to watch your back. They love to take credit even when it’s not warranted and dislike collaborating with others. Weasels also tend to be guarded to conceal their true intentions or plans. They are not trustworthy and love to meddle in the business of others.

How To Make It Work For You: While narcissists are selfish; weasels are mean-spirited little people.

Run away from them if possible. They cannot be redeemed as friends, so you waste your time if you plan to rehabilitate them. Removing a weasel from your life is not a sign of heartlessness; it takes mental toughness to kick these malignant people out of your life.

© 2019 LaRae Quy. All rights reserved.

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