Abraham Lincoln had such a friend…

I have dinner once a quarter with two other female business owners. They are two women who I respect, admire and listen to with complete openness. We spend dinner discussing our challenges and opportunities in our respective businesses, and before we leave we set up what we want to be held accountable to review during our next dinner.

They are honest with me. They ask me the hard questions, they bring me back to the basics, and they provide an ear that gives me the plain truth. EVERYONE needs someone who is their ‘voice of reason’. That certain someone who will tell it like it is, ask the hard questions and give you space to learn and grow…but they ALWAYS expect you to grow. They want to see you succeed and they want to be that objective person who you can trust to give you the ‘straight skinny’ on the issues and decisions you face.

This person can be very intimidating to spend time with, to open up to, or even listen to when they call you on the carpet. This past week during our June dinner, one of them described a habit of mine that I was not aware was so apparant…I was shocked. It caught me off guard as I thought I was ‘hiding’ it better. Yikes! On my hour drive home, I called her to thank her. I appreciated her honesty and it made me realize that I needed to work on that habit to minimize how much I lean that direction. I thanked her for being such a good and honest friend. Someone who loves me enough to call it as she sees it and requires me to be a better me.

Abraham Lincoln made a great statement about such a friend as these two women in my life…“I am a success today because I had a friend who believed in me and I didn’t have the heart to let him down…”

Give thanks for these friends in your life, and if you do not have such friends…then spend the next six months finding one and establishing that type of accountability. Your dreams will completely change AND come true if you have such important friends that you don’t have the heart to let them down.