The Company You Keep
Photo by Ilyuza Mingazova on Unsplash
For a while now I've known that I wanted to write a second book, but I had trouble deciding what to focus on. I had several ideas but until earlier this week I had been lacking some inspiration. Then one unexpected morning I had a 45-minute meeting with a prospective client and then got in the car to drive to an engagement in Boston. During that 4-hour car ride I left myself voice memo after voice memo after voice memo; so many ideas came pouring out of me, I could hardly keep up. Not only did I outline the entire book, but I also "wrote" three different Sunday Starters. Writing is in quotes because I wasn't actually writing, with the hands-free voice memos and all that, but I got the ideas down. It’s hard to say what it was about the person I met with that morning, but there was something about our conversation that left me feeling the most inspired I've felt in a long time.
It's not that I haven't written anything or been achieving good things lately; I've been fortunate to be involved in a lot of great stuff. But sometimes in life we can do all the right things, make all the right plans, and check all the boxes on our to do list, but something still feels like its missing. Checking the boxes will meet expectations, it will sometimes even exceed expectations, but those times in life when we really make magic happen… those times when we become more than we ever thought we could be… well, no to do list can do that. No plan or map can make those moments happen. It is the people we surround ourselves with that get us to that next level.
Forbes highlighted the importance of this in the article Why You Never Want To Be The Smartest Person In The Room, but “smartest” and “best” can be misleading labels—we all have strengths in some areas and gaps in others. Instead of simply asking who is ahead of you intellectually or professionally, ask yourself: What do the people around me have in abundance that I need more of? This person I met with had an abundance of ideas, passion, and excitement; it was impossible not to catch some of it.
So today as you start a new week, I want you to think about who you surround yourself with. Who are the people in your life that make you feel like anything is possible - the people that make you experience what life is all about? Who are the people that have an abundance of something that you may be missing?
The next time you find yourself in a funk, it may not be because of anything that you were doing wrong, it may just be that you are lacking time with the people who pull the best out of you. Even the most introverted among us thrive in community because we need other people to inspire us. So, make your lists, make your plans, and check as many boxes as you can, but don’t forget that it is the people in your life that really make the magic happen.
