4 Ways Our Friends Can Make Dreams Come True

Maxie’s book You’re Not Lost comes out TOMORROW. I got an advanced copy of it and finished it this weekend. It was amazing and I’m not just saying that because I’m her friend. I feel like everyone experiences the feeling of being lost or directionless in life. I’ve preordered it for so many of my friends already because I know so many of them will love it as much as I did. It’s been such an incredible privilege to watch a friend achieve such a massive dream. I’m so proud of Maxie!

4 Ways Our Friends Can Make Dreams Come True

Guest post by Maxie McCoy

No one takes a dream and turns it into reality alone. All that we do and so much of what we accomplish takes an entire village of people to create that success. Does it require huge amounts of hard work, dedication, and consistency from ourselves? Totally. But often the ability to do that and to continue pushing for the finish line when things get tough or when our energy is off, comes from a really great support system around us.

Tomorrow, I’ll be crossing a very major finish line (my book, You’re Not Lost, comes out!!) and when I say that this is truly a dream come true… it’s an understatement. And that dream wouldn’t have happened without our girl Carly. Which is also such an understatement. Her friendship is one of the core reasons that this book exists.

But listen, you don’t need a super successful friend like her in order to be supported and elevated by your friends. There are a few key things she did for me that any friend can do. These acts are important to know because they help us identify what we might need in friendship, and they help us understand how to better be that friend.

They share their knowledge. This is really important at the beginning of any journey to a goal. You can read about the entire start to our friendship in the book, but basically, she held my hand through so much of what I didn’t know about writing on the internet, building a blog, and keeping it going. All of the humans around us have information to share that can be helpful to where we’re going. Identify who in your friend group might, and ask for help.

They cheer us on. Emojis can go a long way. Words of encouragement can too. So can a quick Facetime or an unexpected photo of you and Oprah framed for your living room (Carly did that!). Friendships can carry us forward when what we’re working on might be hard, or daunting, or experiencing a bump in the road. We all need our cheerleaders, people who believe in us and are wildly giving with the enthusiasm. Keep those friends close, and always be willing to give your encouragement in return.

They provide ideas. The amount of text messages I’ve gotten from Carly with ideas for the book is limitless (and they’re all brilliant). She even mocked up a book cover for me when I was creating my design brief. But regardless of having the capacity or capability to execute on someone’s ideas, the fact that they’re in it with you helps get your wheels turning and keeps them there. And you need the turning wheels because so much of a dream come true is just keeping on. Ask friends for input, take what resonates, and have ideas to give in return.

They champion the dream. There’s a difference between cheering someone and championing them. The later takes capital (social, emotional, relational) that a friend is willing to spend on you. Like introductions, connections, awareness… As you’ve seen via this blog (and lots of things you haven’t ever seen), Carly has done this for me continually. We all need our friends to open doors for us, and to do this in return when the timing and the situations are right.

Carly shared with me one of the most poignant thoughts about friendship while we caught up about my book. “The more successful you are, the more successful I am.” And ain’t that the truth. So let’s help our friend’s dreams come true, and it’ll all come back to support our own dreams in the end.

1. Thank you thank you thank you to every single one of you that have read these #MaxieMonday posts and supported me over the years. This very, very big book dream wouldn’t have happened without you!!! SO #batshitgrateful

Order Maxie’s book, You’re Not Lost, HERE!