Who Do You Surround Yourself With?

October 6, 2011 | By | 2 Comments

What’s that they say, “You will only live as big a life as the five people closest to you live theirs.”

Take a quick inventory of the five closest people to you other than family members. What kind of life are they leading? If they are living smaller than you maybe it’s time to engage a mentor, accountability partner or form a Mastermind Group or Forum with people who will challenge you.

I know I like to live my own private life on my terms and get grumpy when someone says I should live bigger. I am full of rationalizations about how I am taking risks and balancing this and that, blah, blah, blah. Bottom line: I like to stay well inside my comfort zone.

Fortunately, I find the courage to push myself toward peers and mentors and break into the busy schedules of successful friends, turn to my business Mastermind group and men’s groups and get prodded to stretch. I hate it. I could use more of it. But if I am feeling bored or flat in any area of my life it’s often due to the company I am keeping (or not keeping).

Who is on the list of five for you? Men and woman you aspire to be like?

Filed in: Personal Growth

About the Author (Author Profile)

Executive coach, top team facilitator, author and speaker. I work with individual leaders and their teams to help navigate personal and professional transitions and to increase leadership capacity and improve communication and relationship skills. I founded my coaching firm in 2001 following 12 years as a CEO. Check out more on me and my coaching process in my book "The Business of Wanting More: Why Some Executives Move from Success to Fulfillment and Others Don't"

Comments (2)

  1. Barbara O'Brien

    Brian,
    What a great question for reflection. Thanks for the post. Why is the group of five exclusive of family members?

    • I just came off a retreat and one person used his brother and several their spouses and this worked well. The key is to find truth-tellers and some family members come with a distorted view of who you are and others struggle to tell you the truth for fear it will cause you pain or withdrawal.

Leave a Reply

Trackback URL | RSS Feed for This Entry