Who is in your boat?

Too often, we get the wrong people into our boats. For many reasons. Often, it is bad judgement, at other times it is misplaced trust. And then once they are on board and we get the true picture, it is often too late to take remedial measures. What can we do to make things right - or better still, how can we ensure only the right people come on board, at our invitation of course.

Life is full of relationships. From the time we are born, when we form the closest, the most cherished relationship with our mothers and then with both parents and eventually with siblings, we thrive on relationships. As we get older, we form relationships with friends, relatives and eventually colleagues at work and then on to the second most important relationship of a lifetime, marriage. All through life, the relationships we form must nourish our soul, strengthen our inner man and give us the kind of long lasting satisfaction of knowing that the right people are right there in our lives.

Wrong relationships

With the right relationships, be it friends, family or spouse, we thrive as human beings. The right relationships are difficult to form, more difficult to maintain and takes a lot of work. Just like the way exercise is. Difficult to get into but very, very beneficial once you start on it. It is also life transforming and will boost your health. Just the way sound relationships do.

Often, people don’t think much of getting the wrong people on board. They don’t think of the long-term consequences of choosing toxic, wrong relationships. Just as the good ones will make you thrive, the bad ones will drag you down. And you wonder why your boat is sinking. Or why it is over-loaded.

Forming relationships that are good for us takes a lot of effort. It takes many things on our part: good judgement, maturity and the ability to evaluate people who come into our lives not with the wrong weights but the right ones; qualities such as honesty, integrity, faithfulness are more important than a bank balance. Only when we choose the right people that we can form long lasting, fruitful relationships that will enrich our lives.

Famous personalities

With all its ups and downs, life is what we make it out to be. We can choose - to be happy even when everything around us is screaming for sadness, to form the right relationships and invite or involve the right people in our lives. Or we can choose to be gloomy and down all the time. In the end, it is the choices we make that enrich or downgrade our lives.

Too many people choose to be unhappy. Even in the midst of riches, titles, position and worldly pleasures, there are many people who are unhappy. We hear of rock stars, movie stars and other famous personalities dying of overdoses and suicide attempts. A classic example is the singer Michael Jackson who despite his millions, needed to be anesthetised in order to sleep. We take simple things in life for granted but they mean the world to each of us.

If you go through the life stories of most famous people, especially the ones who have found fame and fortune in movies and the arts, you will find that most of them were able to lead normal lives before they were forced to pay a price for being famous. These are the people who have a lot of money and plenty of stress too. Too often, the lives they lead are superficial or even disturbed. They find it hard to deal with the fame, the money, the grandeur of it all. Because human beings flourish best in warm and loving environments, it becomes tough to live in a world that revolves around your fame and fortune.

Your choice

People who choose you for who you are and not what you have become, will stay on and will be your friends all life long. A good night’s rest, interesting conversation, a simple meal eaten in absolute peace and good people in our lives - these are the real treasures, the priceless ones that add meaning to who we are. In the end, the false values and the false securities we have declared over our lives fall away to reveal what the reality underneath is. Often, it is the most simple yet the most profound things we cherish in life.

People walk in and out of our lives every day. Some are there for a season while others will stay on for a while. Some will drag us down to the pits they came from when they influence us with the wrong things. Others will add value to our lives and empower us, inspiring us in the process. Again, who you pick for your boat of life is your choice. A choice we all must make carefully.