Surround yourself with people that celebrate you...

"Surround yourselves with people who celebrate you, not merely tolerate you." (I don't know exactly who to attribute this to, other than my friend Laurie.) I think I've used that in a previous blog. But I some recent events have made me think a lot about what the people in your life really do for you.

But I'm not talking about 'tasks'. I'm talking about beliefs, really. And maybe that's not the right word either. Maybe the best way to explain it is by asking a question: do the people in your life believe in you, believe you can be more than you are now (even if what you are now is perfectly lovely), and actually push you to be more than you are? Or are they just along for the ride? They really could care less what you do, or if you grow and evolve and stretch yourself, as long as you're there for the good times? The kind of people who will help you find trouble but scatter like cockroaches in daylight when you need help? If you think it's the latter, then maybe you need to think about some housecleaning.

I am fortunate that I have a lot of people in my life who don't just care about me or what happens to me, but they want me to be more. And again, not in a way that suggests that what I am now isn't "good enough". People who want me to stretch and grow and evolve. People that can see what I sometimes don't (good and bad) and help me eventually see it.

For me, this whole journey of losing weight, while is ultimately something I have to do all by myself, has been so much more enriching because I've learned so much about who I am and who I want to be. For that part of the process, having people who celebrate me has been invaluable.