I can’t tell you how many stages of my life I’ve been in where I made some of the worst decisions of my life. Decisions I look back on now and feel genuinely ashamed of. Some of them still creep in and haunt me to this day. The people around me at those times weren’t random — they were living at the same level I was choosing. Almost like I was being welcomed into the place I was headed.

The only way I’ve ever found to dig out of those consequences is by committing to principles and boundaries, even when it felt pointless or slow. And over time, things start to stack. Not all at once — gradually. Almost like compounding interest, except it’s compounding people. Compounding friendships. You start attracting people who elevate you, then more of them, and then suddenly you realize you’re not buried anymore.

On the other end of the spectrum, when you consistently make disciplined, principled decisions — especially when it would be easier not to — your potential rises. And the people who recognize that trajectory tend to show up. They aren’t drawn to who you are in the moment, but to where you’re clearly going.

The more consistently your behavior tips the scale one way or the other, the stronger the pull becomes. You don’t attract support or dysfunction by chance — you attract it by direction.

And eventually, those past choices fade into something almost legendary. They don’t define you anymore — but they are the very thing that built you into who you are now.