Beware of Friends!

"Friends are to be feared not so much for what they make us do as for what they keep us from doing."

-- Henrik Ibsen

Your friends know you. All too well. They know your dysfunctional behaviors, your self-imposed boundaries, your self-defeating habits, and they support you in maintaining them. They love you just the way you are. And that is the crux of the problem.

Your friends laugh with you. They smile at you. They cut you some slack and they encourage you to settle into your comfort zone. They like you. They like their relationship with you. The last thing they want you to do is change and grow and leave them eating your dust!

And so, no, they're not tying you down or physically holding you back, but they are subtly binding you to your past, to your previously chosen limits. Your comfort zone is their comfort zone, too. Save the boat rockin' for another day. The status quo is oh so fine.

So, love your friends and transcend them. Don't leave them, inspire them. Be more than they think you can be, do more than they think you can do. Surprise them. Startle them. Shock them into seeing you, and the world, through new eyes.

Old friends, new you. New ways of being, old hearts sill beating. Each day a new adventure. The old you is dead. Long live the new you!