One Bad Apple

I have often heard the wisdom that you tend to acclimatize to the people you surround yourself with or your environment.
I've been living that these past few weeks.

I said something today that was quite crude to a coworker - and she looked at my like I had just sprouted another head.  It was so out of character for me, that the next words out of my mouth were "I can't believe those words actually left my mouth".

Really, the fact that I even had the thought is shocking, for me.  It got me thinking.

Work has basically been my life for the past few weeks.  I have a whole lot of deadlines this month, and have been working on an intensive project with a group that I would normally spend at most a couple of hour a week with.

These guys are awesome, and I have enjoyed working with them, but frankly the vibe is basically that of a frat house.  The weird thing is, they are very cognizant of my presence, and are very obviously trying to reign it in.  Which I appreciate very much.

But today I realized that as much as I have positively influenced their behaviour, they have also influenced mine.  My mind can't help but jump "there" now.

I don't think I like it.  Actually that's not so much what is bothering me, it's that in my experience and observation, once you cross a line, you very rarely are able to uncross it.

It's true of a lot of lines in life. 

I know that I am not likely to blurt out crude statements moving forward, I'm not worried about that.  It's the fact that I will think them, that I wish wasn't true.

On the flip side, I wonder if this means that if I hang out with uber successful people, I won't be able BUT TO pick-up habits which will make me uber successful as well.