Friends, McDonalds and Your Life

 I never really thought that the words FRIENDS, MCDONALD'S and LIFE can actually go together for a very valuable lesson in life - directed at a 4 year old no less.

Take the time to read this. It's a short letter with a very good lesson within it.

P.S. It's not just for 4 year olds!

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A NOTE TO CHEYANNE
by Ron White

 

This is something I wrote to my 4 year old cousin Cheyanne when I was 30 years old. I have edited it for this article for the lesson that we as adults can learn from her.
Cheyanne,

If we stay as good of friends as we are now, I know you will read this one day. You said something in the car that made me think. I asked you if you were looking forward to preschool starting.

'No!'

'Cheyanne, why not? Don't you want to meet some friends and have some kids at your birthday party? All you know is adults.'

'I don't want friends at school. I want friends at McDonalds!'

It brought our conversation to an abrupt halt. Because, Cheyanne, I am a 30 year old man and sometimes I don't want friends at school either. I also want friends at McDonald's.

 

There have been times in my life when I chased the McDonald's friends. To this day, women from McDonald's still cause my head to turn. Sometimes I let the happy meal distract me, instead of the delayed gratification of the degree. Sometimes friends from McDonald's seem fun and carefree and friends from school seem boring.

Of course, these are metaphors and I am not talking about fast food or degrees. Cheyanne, it is the same at 4 as it is 30. Human nature tells us that we need what is on the other side, the forbidden, or what doesn't take much effort. Human nature tells us that what takes work and moves slower can't be fun. But, that is wrong.

Life is no happy meal. It isn't instant gratification. It takes the discipline of school but the reward is so much more than a chocolate sundae and a Hamburger slide.

Cheyanne, I hope that you want the friends that it is initially hard to want. I pray that you want the friends who will be there when the happy meal is over and will walk with you towards faithfulness, self control, success, hope, hard work, goal setting, focus, self-discipline, honesty, integrity and love.

I don't claim to be a wise man, a poet or a saint. But, my heart beats as loud as thunder for the things that I believe and I believe to my core that delayed gratification is the hardest thing to teach – yet one of life’s most important lessons.

I love you very much Cheyanne. I have 26 years on you and I struggle with the same thing. However, who you surround yourself with will determine the outcome of your life. Make the choices VERY carefully.

You have to live with the choices you make.

Your Favorite Cousin,
Ronnie

You are Who Your Friends Are

There is probably nothing more true than this saying: "You are who your friends are."

Remember when you were younger and your parents would say, "I don't want you to hang out with crowd!"?

There were saying that no only because they're probably concerned for your safety but also because the people you spend time with are the people that will influence you in your actions and ultimately the person you'll become. You'll tend to adopt the same habits and even the same mindset.

So in this, your journey to creating a better life for yourself, it is important to surround yourself with people that you actually want to be like. People who are successful or at the very least people who, like you, are driven and motivated to succeed. You want to surround yourself with people who will not only support and encourage you in your journey to success but also join you.

Anthony Robbins when he was 23 years old, I think, had already become a millionaire and when he returned to his old neighborhood to share his good blessings with his old friends, he found that they no longer wanted to be around him. His group of "friends" had left him and Anthony then subconsciously linked money with losing friends. He began losing the money that he had worked so hard for. In the end, Anthony realized that he was not the reason why his friends had "abandoned" him. They shied away from him because they were not comfortable with his new found stature. They had their own insecurities they had to deal with and Anthony's new found fortune was far from their money comfort zone.

Would you like to have friends like these? Or friends who will be with you through the journey and even at the end of it? Having the right set of friends is so important to keeping you motivated in reaching for your dreams. The road to success is paved with many obstacles and supportive friends are the ones who'll help you get over emotional obstacles along the way. Friends with poor mindsets are the ones who will envy your success, won't encourage and ultimately even pull you down "back to their level."

In one chapter in Jack Canfield's book The Success Principles: How to Get From Where You to Where You Want to Be, Jack talks about his experience on his first day teaching in a high school. The first time he went to the Teachers' Lounge he was bombarded with not only smoke from their cigarettes but also so many negative notions and banter. The teachers said things like:

"Oh! You got that Smith kid again? Good luck! He's a terror!"
"These kids! They'll never learn!"

Soon enough Jack called the Teachers' Lounge the "Ain't it awful" club because everyone was constantly complaining about something. Jack never set foot in the Teachers' Lounge again after that.

It really struck me that Jack even said, he'd rather eat alone than to surround himself with such negativity but it wasn't long before he found another group of teachers who spent their time at a table in the library. These teachers were very different from those in the lounge. They were all filled with hope and many ideas on how to inspire and teach their students.

Jack began spending time with these people and through the help of their ideas and inspiration, Jack became the Teacher of the Year at the school even if he was only on his first year of teaching.

See the power of having the right group of people around you?

So ask yourself this question: Who are the 5 people that you spend the most time with? Do you want to be like them? Are they the type of people that you should be hanging out with.

Remember: You are the SUM of the 5 people that you spend the most time with...

Choose your friends. Your future depends on it.


- designstudentny


P.S.
I learned about these principles by reading these books: