We all know that life is full of learning opportunities. A great mentor taught me the impact of proximity on life lessons.
Some of them we learn the hard way, while others we learn from those around us.
It’s natural to be drawn to people who have the knowledge and experience that we want or need.
In fact, proximity can play a major role in how quickly and effectively we learn from others.
Here are a few of the benefits of being around people with more experience than we have ourselves.
What is contagious proximity?
Recently, I learned that, from my mentor. Bob Goff, a very successful best-selling author a concept of proximity.
He said, “if it’s not in proximity to your life, then it’s probably not important”.
In fact, he was at a stage in life where he was saying no to anything that wasn’t in proximity to his life.
I started really thinking about proximity and I started realizing that it goes beyond just making decisions in life.
It has to do with people in life too.
If you wanna have an impact on someone, closeness gives you that chance.
He called it contagious proximity!
How proximity can impact the people in your life
If you want your kids to learn a lesson, chances are that lesson is gonna be caught more than it’s taught.
And to be caught, they have to be at a close distance from you.
I know one of the most amazing things I did in raising our kids was when I went through a three-year stretch of my life where I didn’t take a single trip that I didn’t have one of the kids with me on that trip.
That was contagious proximity.
That is the kind of closeness I’m talking about.
We were able to talk about things on airplanes, on Uber rides, and at restaurants, because they were in proximity to me and in proximity to the lessons and the messages that I was learning.
This is the best time to “plant a seed” for personal growth!
How closeness can help you learn more in life
I’m sitting here today on this beautiful lake, and it’s a lake where a lot of proximity takes place.
There’s a lot of fishing that happens on this lake.
There are a lot of conversations that happen on this lake and it happens in closeness.
So today I want you to think about who are the people in your life that are in that sphere of contagious proximity.
Who are the people that you want to influence in your life?
Who are the people you want to have an impact on?
Are they in that zone of contagious proximity?
If they’re not get them there and if you need to go where they’re at to be in that ring of contagious distance.
Thank you to my mentor, Bob Goff, for teaching me this valuable lesson, and thank you all for listening to this mentor message.