Wtf Does Keep Your Friends Close and Your Enemies Closer Mean?

I was driving around today running a bunch of mindless errands and having a bit of a nostalgia trip before I permanently vacate the Midwest next week and I began to ponder the idea of having friends and enemies in life. Instantly I was transported into every Tom Clancy book ever created and quickly realized that the saying, “Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer” is not only one of the most used phrases in any form of media, but it holds a level of truth to it that many people don’t even realize. So clearly I have way too much free time in order to ponder the ramblings of some retired naval officer, but alas it makes for a great article.

Why is it so great? Because I damn well say it is. But seriously, what is the first thing you think of when you read that ubiquitous statement? Do you think about how you should always be breathing down the neck of the people you dislike in life? Does it remind you about how you should have a close relationship with everyone in your life? Does the statement itself anger you to no ends because you are tired as hell of hearing someone state it in every Steven Segal movie? All of them are excellent stances, but not exactly the kickass conclusion I came to.

So what is my eye opening insight? Keeping your friends close means to keep your strengths close to who you are, keep your enemies closer refers to keeping your downfalls or fears closer than your strengths, this means is that your fears should play a more active role in your life than your strengths.

Playing to your strengths is an important aspect to any life. You need to not only know what your strengths are, but use them in order to best amplify all aspects of your life. This means if you are an amazing public speaker that you should always volunteer to give the presentations to your clients for your new freelancing career. It also means that if you are a caring and loving person that you be sure to share those sediments with every person that you meet, you might even create a new relationship out of it. If you don’t know what your strengths are, then I recommend you figure it out and start using them in your daily life. A simple exercise of sitting down and thinking about the things you are good at is an easy way to figure out some of your strengths. Once you have a good grasp on your strengths, and you start using them on a daily basis, you will find that your life will become that much more awesome.

Keeping your enemies closer, or keeping your fears close to your heart sounds exactly like what it is. While it is very important to play to your strengths and focus on the things that you are good at in life, you are dying as a human being if you are not facing and dealing with your fears. People who only focus on the good in their life and ignore all the bad, are living the life to the equivalent of a blind man in a mine field. All it would take is one moment that rocks the boat a little bit more than you can handle and you whole life would be rattled to the core. Now it may sound like I am trying to scare you, and if that is how you feel then good. You need to feel scared every once in a while in life. If you aren’t scared and you aren’t pushing yourself in your life to the next level, you are not evolving and you are simply stagnating, or even regressing as a human being. Keeping your fears closer than your strengths allows you to focus on the areas of your life that aren’t so pleasant, and focus on making them less of a hindrance and more of strength. Think about it for a minute, if you never faced your fears in life, you would likely never have learned how to swim, how to ride a bike, how to talk to guys/girls, how to tie your shoes, the list goes on and on. The beauty of getting started on this is simple as hell; you don’t even to do some exercise because I am sure that you already know what your fears are in life. Take the time to chisel away at these fears like a sculptor with a piece of marble, and you will find that you will become that much more stronger and more at ease than that guy who blames his lack of dating life on his lack of a Mercedes in his drive way.

Cheers

Gabriel