Guest Blogger Jane Lovas' weekly series called “What I Wish Someone Had Told Me About Life and Career” runs each Thursday

As I continue blogging about relationships I want to share with you the importance of having a small group of friend that will have your back. This isn’t just any group of friends, this is a group of select friends that will support you when you want to try something new while at the same be perfectly honest with you if you’re making some dumb decisions or not living up to your potential.

These are relationships that you want to think very carefully about. Are you ready for them and are they ready for you? First are you ready to hear the truth about yourself from someone else’s perspective? If you want to expand your horizons and become the very best that you can, this group can help you get there.

There are three very important components to creating this group; safety, honesty and acceptance. Safety means that everyone in the group feels safe; nothing is said with the intention to hurt anyone. Honesty means that the truth is always said. And finally acceptance means everything that is said is accepted in the spirit with which it is shared.

The intention of this group is to support growth and development. It may be your growth and development or the group may support each other’s growth and development also. If the group’s main purpose is to support your personal development you may end up meeting with each person individually, whereas if the group supports each other you’ll want regular group meetings.

No matter how you think you might structure your support group, start slowly by building a safe environment that allows honesty and acceptance to grow. You need to feel safe so that you can ask anyone in the group for their advice, thoughts or ideas and know that you will get an honest answer delivered with respect (even if it seems a bit harsh).

So whom should you ask to be in your group? Start slowly, start with one individual, someone you know and respect and trust their opinion. Ask them if you can buy them dinner or coffee. It’s best to start in a neutral place. Allow plenty of time; give them an idea about what you are trying to do and what support you would like from them. What’s important about this first meeting is that it is the opportunity to get to know one another better and begin building a safe relationship filled with trust.

Good luck and start building your success team!

"True Friends" courtesy Lel4nd via Flickr Creative Commons

Jane Lovas is a career specialist who is the creator of the life changing 12 week tele-seminar “Creating the Life of Your Dreams”. She is also our guest blogger, whose column will run every Thursday. If you would like to contact Jane, you can reach her here, here or here.