Do you sometimes feel you gain forward motion towards your goals but then get stopped? Do you feel alone with your ideas and ambitions without a sounding board and support?

Many women think that we can reach our goals alone, just working that little bit harder. We hoard our ideas in our heads but end up feeling stuck and making no progress at all.  You’d be surprised how much influence the people around us have on our mindset and our belief in our ability to reach our goals. And it seems that the pandemic has exaggerated this and women are starting to evaluate their relationships.

The people we surround ourselves with and spend the most time with are the ones that have a massive impact on our lives and our careers. They have the ability to lift us up or bring us down and it’s up to us to choose who we hang out with. We can only do that if we become brutally aware of the quality and purpose of those relationships and the energy and power they bring or deduct from our everyday lives.

Have realistic expectations on people around you

We may have experienced, sometimes to our own surprise, that even the closest persons to us or our dearest colleagues may not be able to give us the support we need to succeed. Or they may even withhold their acceptance of the path we have chosen. You don’t need anyone else’s approval but sometimes women put their dreams on hold if they receive negative messages from people around them.

We might need to redefine how we interact with certain people, increasing the time and energy we spend with some, decreasing the energy we spend with others. When we change our priorities and start showing up in life more boldly our closest ones might need time to adjust.

Expand your circles

You may need to surround yourself with new people with different, inspiring ideas and those who are willing to take the steps with you and support you outside your comfort zone. To realise your goals you will need new contacts, networks, support and sometimes new love.

Minimise draining your energy

You may be dragged into relationship battles and situations, which have nothing to do with you, and yet, you spend time and energy trying to fix situations for someone else – and feel bad about yourself for not succeeding.

Women sometimes feel responsible for everyone else’s emotions and relationships. If your whole capacity (time/energy/spirit) is spent fixing everyone else there’s no time left for your own soul. And by doing so you prevent them from learning the lessons they need to learn in life. 

Create strong boundaries

Respect other people’s boundaries and be careful not to meddle with their lives. Offer your opinion if asked, offer support and be available to those who need help but let them hold their own space. And when asked, carefully assess the requests of help you say ‘yes’ to.

Surround yourself with people who support you

The fastest way to make your goals happen is to surround yourself with people who are already working and succeeding on similar goals. Imagine a new reality where you have left behind or minimised interactions with people who drain your energy and focus on spending your time and energy with people who you can learn from and who support your ideas.

We all have a choice who we hang out with. We owe it to ourselves to cultivate an atmosphere we can become successful and start living the life we want. Building the right, supportive relationships away from judgement and criticism is our greatest tool.  It’s is time to identify the relationships that will help you to get to your goals and reassess the ones that occupy your time but don’t support you in the right way.

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