Surround yourself with only people who are going to lift you higher.
-- Oprah Winfrey

You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.
-- Jim Rohn

Who you spend time with has a profound effect on how you grow and what you become. We humans are social creatures. We require social interaction in order to grow and fulfill our goals, our life purpose. In the same way that there are healthy foods and junk foods are going to have profoundly different effects on you physically, there are healthy social relationships and junk relationships. It is important to make a conscious effort to surround yourself with the types of people who provide healthy relationships, ones that provide mentoring or hte chance to mentor, ones that provide love and the chance to love. Just as importantly you must avoid the types of relationships that weaken you emotionally. How do you feel after you have spent time with a particular person? Are you more optimistic or less? Do you feel more confident or less? Do you feel more fearful of the future or less? The answers to these questions will tell you what kind of relationship it is, junk or healthy.