A seat at your table should cost more than knowing your name.

Proximity is not the same as closeness, and knowing you is not the same as being trusted by you. When the standard for a place in your life is simply that someone showed up and stayed around, you end up with an inner circle assembled by accident. The people closest to you shape a great deal of what you think and accept. That position should be earned rather than defaulted into.

Ask what actually qualifies someone for real access to your life, and answer it specifically: honesty, consistency, wanting good things for you. Then look at who currently has that access and whether they meet it. Adjust quietly rather than dramatically.