Field of influence

There is a place that enhanced my understanding of how people influence other people. I stayed there for only five months, but what I learned makes it feel much longer.

My arrival and first few days put me in a thoughtful mood as my habits and mental attitudes contrasted and conflicted with those of the people I interacted with there. I particularly thought about the influence that those people had on others there, and on me.

We do not live in isolation and each one of us has a field of influence that he or she possesses and somewhat imposes on others, knowingly or unknowingly. When our fields of influence overlap, the stronger attributes in one person subdue the weaker ones in the other person, resulting in the adoption, rejection and fusion of habits and mental attitudes; and the mutation of personalities.