Our Right Direction Often Looks Like The Right Friends

​If I look back over the decades of my life, it’s true that where I am today is largely a reflection of the people I’ve surrounded myself with along the way. And when I reflect on the seasons when I wasn’t living what I now call my “right” life, one thing becomes clear: I wasn’t surrounded by the right people.

What is a “right” life, you might ask?

I believe we are all born with a purpose - an inner compass pointing toward a path that allows us to uniquely contribute to the right direction of the world. I’ve also come to believe that much of my own angst, my struggles, my anxieties and depressions, were born from resisting that direction. Fighting it. Distracting myself from it.

And one of the easiest ways to fight that inner compass is to surround ourselves with people who have little interest in where it’s trying to take us. People who aren’t chasing direction at all.

We need friends who care as much about where we’re going as where we currently stand. Friends who are curious. Friends willing to look beneath the surface to find the hidden threads of who we’re becoming. Friends who see the potential we’re often too afraid or too wounded to see in ourselves.

Because the truth is, good friends are usually much better at imagining who we can be, while we are often experts at imagining all the reasons we can’t.

Life has changed drastically for me this past decade. I feel closer to my right life than ever before.

Is it a coincidence that the people in my life look drastically different than they did ten years ago?

I don’t think so.

When life feels like it’s not going right, it might be worth standing in the middle of your circle of friends and asking: Do they look like my right life?

Sometimes the best way to change direction is to change the circle.