Motivational speaker Jim Rohn is famous for saying, “You’re the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with.” Take some time to think about that. Seriously.

Are those 5 people you associate with most positive-minded, encouraging, and supportive? Do they energize you and inspire you to be your best? Do they share similar values and goals? Do they listen to you and empathize with you? Are they there for you through thick and thin? Do they give you a genuine pat on the back for your accomplishments? Do they provide you healthy accountability and help raise awareness to self-sabotaging tendencies?

Or, is your inner circle more likely to be negative, pessimistic, and defeatist? Are those 5 people energy vampires holding you back? Do their priorities conflict with your own? Do they expect you to listen to them but never return the favor? Are they fair-weathered? Do they talk behind others’ backs (maybe even your own)? Are they jealous of yours (and others’) successes? Are they judgmental? Do they secretly (or openly) hope for the worst for others and purposely attempt to bring them down?

I think you get the point. If you want to live a healthy, happy, successful, and fulfilling life, you need to surround yourself with positive, like-minded people — which is often referred to as positive social support.

Positive social support is exceptionally important for good physical and mental health. It can enhance resilience to stress, increase longevity and quality of life, reduce levels of inflammation, enhance immunity, promote healthy weight management, improve mood, enhance self-esteem, improve feelings of well-being, enhances vitality, encourage kindness, enhance sense of belonging, increase empathy for others, lead to greater levels of trust and openness, and promote positive behavior changes. In the case of the latter, positive social support is a linchpin for making healthy changes in every domain of life. And finally, positive social support allows us to create wonderful shared memories.

So, who makes up your inner circle? Is it time to make some tough decisions? Is it time to make some new acquaintances?