Basement People and Balcony People
Thursday, 19 November 2009 17:17
Written by Joselito Laudencia
In many of my talks and workshops, I point out that your success in whatever you want to achieve is largely determined by who you're hanging around.
If you think about it, it makes a lot of sense! If you're with people who support your ideas to go for what you want, you propel more quickly to achieving that. And the opposite may be true as well.
Say you're tired of the one-night stands or you want to venture outside of the gay bars because you're ready for a meaningful relationship with the man of your dreams. If your friends say things like "Good luck out there. Most men are dogs!" (which I've overheard guys saying, by the way!) or "The only guys you'll find outside the bars are the closeted married guys!" (which I've also overheard), how motivated would you be to go out there and get started to find love?
Or say you want to pursue your dream of working on cars because it's been a passion you've had for most of your life. If your friends say things like "Why are you doing that? You'll never make any money doing that." or "Are you sure you're gay? That's really a straight guy thing.", then how would you feel about taking any steps to pursue your dream?
You see, there's two kinds of people in the world. Basement people and Balcony people.
Basement people are those people in your lives who don't really support you in going for your dreams. They may say they support you, but their words and actions are otherwise and tend to bring you down (to the basement). It's not because they're bad people. It's simply because they're used to seeing you in a certain way and want you to fit the mold of how they know you. And most likely, they're afraid themselves to go for their own dreams. If you went for your dreams and succeeded, it would give them little excuse to why they're not living their lives to the fullest.
Balcony people are those people in your lives who want to uplift you (to the balcony) to live your dreams to the fullest. They cheer you on to you being the best you can be!
So if you take a look at your life and things aren't moving the way you want them to, take a look around you at your friends and the community you've created. Are you surrounded by basement people? Or are you surrounded by balcony people?
No judgment is necessary, but it might give you an insight into why you may not be going where you really want to be.
And if you really want to go deeper into yourself, here's another question for you. With your friends that you have around you, are YOU being a basement person or a balcony person? How do you support your friends and loved ones to be the best they can be?
Tell me your comments, what you think about this idea, and whether you consider yourself to be a basement or a balcony person! I'd love to know!
