Realizing I’m not a good friend sometimes…

General — By Shannon Schmid on June 26, 2012 at 9:00 am

I recently read a really interesting book called “The Charge” by Brendon Burchard. It’s about activating the 10 human drives that make you feel alive. I found a lot of great stuff in it. Lot’s to ponder… and lot’s to work on.

But one chapter really shocked me. Chapter 5- The Drive for Caring. It ended with a series of activating questions- ways to put into action the lessons of the proceeding chapter. It asked if you could answer a series of intimate but really very simple questions about your 3 best friends.

(My 3 closest friends when we attended BlogHer a couple years ago)

I could answer some questions really fast- but some of the most meaningful questions like “This persons top 3 ambitions in life are to…” left my blank after the first two answers. Other questions like “this persons favorite meal” should be simple…yet I had to scratch my head.

I’m not the friend I want to be.

I’m so caught up in my own life, that I let phone dates go by the wayside (we live on opposite sides of the country). I love them from afar- but I dont engage in their daily struggles and triumphs in the way I want to. And that lack of congruence in who I want to be, vs. who I am actually showing up as – chips away at my quality of life! I realize from other parts of the book that I also want to be more conscious in my effort of noticing and encouraging positive people and friendships into my life. And the first building block of that is cherishing and investing in the lives of those people that I have already identified as positive forces in my life.And frankly I need to work harder at that.

I need to be as the book says “More present, Interested, and attentive to others.”

I’m grateful to Brendon Burchardfor the reminder.

Want a free copy of The Charge? Just click the link!

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