One of the most telling indicators of your life success will be your peer group, those people whom you tend to spend the most time. Financial gurus have pointed out that your yearly income will tend to come within 10% of the friends you have in your inner circle. I’d offer that other areas of life success will track similarly — education levels, ethical attributes, physical condition and the quality of relationships.

Stated simply, the people whom you tend to hang around the most will have about the same level of college education, marriages that last about the same length of time (and end in similar fashion), and the same types of ethics.

The quickest way to advance YOUR life success, is to hang around a group of people with a reality greater than yours; to expose yourself to larger ways of behaving, thinking and acting. Social piggy backing will give you that more quickly than nearly any other way of advancing your social circles.

Think of the child’s game of giving “piggy back” rides, where one person climbs on the other’s back, to be carried around. Similar to the child’s game, “social piggybacking” is an easier, quicker way to be carried forward into new social circles.

Don’t worry about the analogy of climbing on someone else’s back to advance — social piggy backing can be performed ethically and honestly; and does not have to depend on other’s efforts to advance your social circle.

As has been mentioned, Social piggy backing is simply tapping into other’s social networks. The quickest way to make new friends is to be introduced to someone else’s freinds… then, become THEIR friend.

To be a friend, BE a friend. Initiate, invite and maintain contact.

Upon meeting a new friend, first become their friend, then seek to begin meeting their friends. Think group situations — parties, social hours, dinners. Always get a method of contacting new friends. Then… start the process again.

There’s nothing wrong with socializing consciously — seeking out friends with attributes you admire and are seeking for yourself. Simply remember, friendships are not one way — what you can get from them. Remember, to have friends, be a friend.

Consider what people you know who are the most successful you know. They don’t have to be any particular level of “success”, only the most successful you know.

Focus on those friends, both being a friend and meeting their friends. Then do the same again, considering which of your new friends are the most successful.

Be conscious of your tendency to feel uncomfortable around dis-similar people. Pay less attention to your comfort levels (because being around people more successful than you are WILL be uncomfortable) and focus more on finding friends whom you admire (and admire for more than their financial success — think admiring their ethics, grace and honesty too…)

Remain conscious and continue tapping into new social networks and withing months or a year, you’ll find yourself with a whole new group of friends that challenge your reality and inspire you to be more.