About five years ago, my boyfriend at the time told me a quote from Jim Rohn:

You’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with.

At the time I was 16 years old, and I was hanging out with some people who were not allowing me to pursue my best self. My boyfriend saw them as stifling my potential and he was right. I made the challenging move to change my environment, and therefore my future.

I’ve made this same move in a few very big ways throughout my life.

The day after I turned 18, I boarded a plane with a one-way ticket from Madison, Wisconsin to Seattle, Washington. Unfortunately, I grew up in a toxic family, and as soon as I knew I could physically escape the grips of my psychologically and emotionally abusive relationship with a family member, I took the opportunity. I decided to not apply for University, and I spent time in Seattle and Canada escaping a person who negatively impacted my life in a big way.

Since then, I’ve attended UW Madison, transferred to Northwestern, and took every chance I could to travel somewhere new, usually alone, to take time to collect and reevaluate who I am, and who I surround myself with.

Now, I realize who a person becomes is more than who they surround themselves with; it’s what they surround themselves with.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about consumption. I’ve also been thinking a lot about who I am, where I want to be, and how to change my pattern of consumption to get there. If you can change the 5 people you spend most of your time with, you can change the things that take up the most space in your mind through changing what you decide to consume.

What social media platforms you consume regularly? What types of podcasts and Netflix shows do you watch? What news media do you watch or read?

What food do you consume?

We have the autonomy to decide what we consume consciously.

We have the autonomy to decide who we become, consciously.