Who Is Pushing Your Buttons?
Life is too short to surround yourself with Yes Men.
Yet, we all do it. We like to get in the echo chamber, line up the opinions that agree with our own, and re-validate every single belief that we hold so dear.
How much better would it be if we enlisted the counsel of a few trusted friends to speak into our deeply held beliefs? How much better to have a few people who are willing to look over our shoulders, point out our blind spots, challenge our assumptions, and nudge us to simply…be better?
I’m grateful that I have a few of those people in my corner. They are not effusively positive, believing that everything that comes out of my mouth is dripping with wisdom and has no room for improvement.
But neither are they depressingly negative, gleefully pointing out every flaw in my plans and watching for any opportunity to remind me that I’m dumb.
No, they are friends who strategically push my buttons. Friends who love me enough to challenge me, friends who believe in me enough to try to make me better, friends who aren’t afraid to risk hurting my feelings if it makes me go back to the drawing board, re-examine my argument, and come out with a stronger position on the other side.
Those are the kind of friends that will give you the courage to stand in the face of those who aren’t so friendly. Those are the ones who will work as iron sharpening iron.
But here’s the rub: those friends don’t generally volunteer for the role. It takes me pursuing them, asking them, giving them permission to poke away.
So who’s pushing your buttons?
