Do you have the experience of being hanging around with the wrong people? There is a strange feeling of known you are not in the right place. Even if everything looks fine, you are not satisfied enough. You are forced to go into activities you actually dont want to just because your friends do.

What an uncomfortable feeling!!

Something that truly helps you to make your life simple, fun & efficient is your peer group. You could create one or join one. Before you join one you must answer some questions.

You cannot choose your family, and your options to chose your friends from childhood are very limited. Thus, you can choose your Peer Group.

Looking into the dictionary a peer group is a group of people of approximately the same age, social status, and interests. Some groups are socialized by peers rather than by their families or conventional institutions. They define themselves as a gang.

Well, forget about the gang. Concentrate on the same interest. I must recognize it will be easier if they are of approximately the same age and social status, but those are not mandatory. In fact, new rules are broking those walls.

Here we will focus on three main questions you should consider before to join or promote to a peer group. I will talk you about other interesting aspects of peer groups in others articles.

Three Questions to choose your Peer Group:

What are your peer group goals?

The mean of a peer group is give and receive support, advice, understanding, resources, etc. You want to be in the right place.

The right peer group is going to demand you as well as give to you.

Before to join a peer group you should consider if your goals are lined up with the goals of the peer group.

What do you want from your peer group?

There are a great variety of peer groups. You will find them under a huge variety of labels. Not all of them have the same structure. Some have not formal structure at all.

Clarify your needs and wants before to look for one. Ask to current and former members. Look for an outside point of view.

Do you look for support? Are you asking for advice? Do you try to get references?

Be honest. You could lie even to yourself. But you dont want to waste your time and resources. Soon or later, true will come out.

What is the level of ACTION that your peer group is currently having?

Is this group still alive? Or is just a name on a wall?

You are looking for an objective measure. Do you have access to their program of the last six months?

What the annual program? What are the activities they are doing?

How are they supporting each other?

This could not be easy to find talking to non-structure peer groups. Sometimes rules and program are not written. Thus, you could ask for testimonials and reference in an informal way.

Dear reader, may be you are not conscious of the important of the right peer group yet. I just wish you to be aware of this matter before is too late to choose.

We will talk about how to create a peer group next time.

I wish you the best.

Fernando Manzano