01.02.2023

Intentional Friends For Life | Structure | Share Your Thoughts

Hello there! Welcome to my weekly LEAPS. 

You’re receiving this email because you subscribed to my weekly Wednesday feature or our mailing list. Every Wednesday, I share 5 things using our LEAPS approach: 

Learn: something new or an idea
Energy: something that’s creating an energy and positive impact
Action: something to do
Processing: a question to consider
Shout out: something or someone that I want to celebrate or acknowledge

Have you taken the GLAS Understanding Assessment
and received your free report?

LEARN
Something Worth Sharing

Intentional Friends For Life

When we’re young - especially when we start school - there is a great deal of focus for us to build great friendships. As I think back, we played together, visited each others houses, made up games and stories to role play, created dances etc. There would also be the times when we’d fall out with friends, perhaps caused by a dispute over a game or toy. As a child, I remember worrying about belonging in friendship circles and fearing being ‘found out’ - found to be someone they wouldn’t want to be friends with.

More recently I have been focusing on my adult friendships after realising how easily work and life can get in the way in creating and nurturing new friendships. In a survey of US adults, it was found that 49% reported having 3 or fewer close friends.

Making friends isn’t just for kids. It’s also not enough to have just ‘work-place’ friendships, although they are really important. Through my daughter, I’ve built two new friendships recently; I’ve become friends with the mums of her best friends. Low and behold…the overthinking crept in once again and I started worrying that they would realise they didn’t want to be friends with me once they’d got to know me.

It’s not easy to share this with you. I thought this was something that only I had felt - given its something familiar to me since being young. I mentioned it to my daughter who said she had the same worries. My husband revealed he had experienced it too, and my team shared similar feelings. My conclusion (and learning) is that we all worry about belonging and being a great friend. After seeing an interview that Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlinson gave while promoting their new film ‘80 For Brady’ (a film based on a group of ageing friends), I was reminded by what they said:

“Build friendships with people who can help you thrive….what you have to do is be intentional”.

To conclude:

• we all worry about belonging and being friends

• friendships are just as important for adults as they are for children

• build friendships that nourish you - and allow you to nourish others

• share how you feel, you’re probably misguided

• build intentional friendships and make the effort

ENERGY
Focusing on an emotion or positive energy; a stand-out word / s

STRUCTURE

The word STRUCTURE originates from Latin STRUERE "to pile, place together, heap up; build, assemble, arrange, make by joining together". This word is something we use all the time at GLAS. When we create structures, we can create order and help find clarity. Great structures are not made to restrict and hold back, but to free us to progress and build.

ACTION
Something small that you can do that might make a big difference

Reach Out To A Friend

Following this weeks LEARN, I’m encouraging you to reach out to a friend. This could be to make a new one, develop one or just to reconnect with someone you’ve not seen or spoken to for a while.

PROCESSING
A question to think about and consider (you can discuss this with someone or write your thoughts down)

“What are the qualities of friendship?”

I’d love you to share with me your thoughts on this one… what would your top 5 things be for the most important qualities of friendships? You’re welcome to drop me a line with your list.

SHOUT OUT
Who / what I think deserves recognition, my gratitude or to be celebrated.

Sharing Your Thoughts

Continuing on the theme of my LEARN, I’m shouting out the courage - and associated benefits - of voicing concerns and how you feel. The minute we share with someone we trust, there is an ease. It’s certainly not easy to speak out or say what you are worrying about, but the positives that this brings far outweigh the fear! There have been so many examples of sharing something and realising how my thinking and assumptions were wrong and misguided. This is true for us all.

BONUS GIFT FOR YOU
This week’s little extra for you - from me

This week, I’m recommending a new and fabulous book: The Book Of Beautiful Questions by Warren Berger.

The visual below is available to you for free (for 7 days) using code: INQUIRE when you check out. Access is via the link below.

The artwork featured in this section is all copyrighted and for private use only. If you wish to use these online, in blogs / features or in presentations etc - we are happy to discuss licences. Please get in touch. The downloads do not have watermarks.

If you’d like to discuss having your ideas, business or culture captured visually - you can also let me know via email.

LEAPS is a process used by our team and clients all the time - and even my own family on a daily basis. 

I’ll be sharing a set of LEAPS each week with you and encourage you to do your own version:

• L: what have you learned?

• E: what’s your energy / feeling word

• A: what’s one thing you need to do?

• P: what are you thinking / processing?

• S: who or what can you shout out?