You can learn a lot about yourself and your own values by taking an assessment of your friends.  Here’s a quick activity for you today:

• Give yourself a little time to think.  Gather all of your friends lives and put them together in your head.  If for some reason you can’t picture your friends in your head, no problem.  Just browse through your friends on Facebook.  Really focus on your good friends. The folks you choose to spend time with on a regular basis.  You can skip those Facebook “friends” who you met one time at a party or whatever.
• What do your friends have in common?  What would you say if you had to sum your friends up in one overarching description?
• Now, what comes up for you?  What does this overarching description tell you about your own life…your own values…your own choices?
• Can you include yourself in this same overarching description? Do you feel lucky that you are part of this amazing group of friends doing what you consider to be amazing things?  Or, does it make you uncomfortable that you have made choices that are similar to your friends?  Do you wish you were making different choices?
• If you notice that your life does not match this overarching description, ask yourself “why not?”  Do you have a longing to be more like your friends?  Or, are you someone who has grown apart from your friends and are looking for a new community to be a part of?

This is the week that we Americans all sit down and celebrate gratitude all at the same time.  I love this holiday.  It’s my absolute favorite.  And one reason is because I believe gratitude is a superpower that can help us transform any situation.  I believe that gratitude is the practice of celebrating your own gifts and celebrating the gifts in each other.  Our friends are gifts to be celebrated.  Some of us feel connected to and supported by our friends.  Others of us feel estranged.  Regardless, we can all feel grateful that we have a community of people who hold up that mirror before us – who allow us to stop and reflect so that we can continue to practice making the choices that will bring us to our best selves.