“I get by with a little help from my friends” by The Beatles is the epic and perfect theme song for today’s episode!

It’s June 8, 2021 and I am celebrating all friends on National Best Friends Day. I remind myself that my best friends deserve to be celebrated every day!

However, not all relationships are created equal, and although we may not think about friendships as something requiring a performance review or ROI assessment, we should – for many good reasons.

In today's podcast, I explore different categories of friendship and muse about the Covid impact on friendships, who showed up for us, and who did not during trying times.

 BONUS:

Isabel extends a gift to her listeners of her proprietary Friendship Health CheckUp. Get a copy of this friend-saving evaluation at www.MyEncoreFriends.com

RESOURCES:

 Episode 07 – BFF Not Forever

https://lift-as-you-climb.captivate.fm/episode/bff-not-forever-layc07

 Episode 08 – REAL Friends

https://lift-as-you-climb.captivate.fm/episode/real-friends-layc08

 Blog “Why Is ‘BFF’ Not Always Forever”

https://www.theencorecatalyst.com/blog/why-is-bff-not-always-forever

Listen in or Read and share your thoughts with the Lift As You Climb community Facebook Group!

About the Host:

Isabel Banerjee - Your Next Business

Strategist and Transformation Catalyst

Dynamic, a self-made entrepreneur who overcame obstacles with an unrelenting positive nature, a farm girl work ethic and a conscious choice to thrive rather than survive, Isabel Alexander Banerjee cultivated an award-winning, $10 million+ global chemical business and grew it from dining room table to international boardrooms.

Isabel’s strengths include the ability to initiate & nurture strategic relationships, a love of lifelong learning and talents for helping others maximize their potential. An inspiring speaker within both industry and community, she is a driving force behind those with the courage to foll0ow her example of thriving against the odds.

With 50+ years of business experience across diverse industries, Isabel is respected as an advisor, a coach, a mentor and a role model. She believes in sharing collective wisdom and empowering others to economic independence.

Founder of the Lift As You Climb Movement (www.facebook.com/groups/liftasyouclimbmovement)

and

Chief Encore Officer, The Encore Catalyst (www.theencorecatalyst.com) – an accelerator for feminine wisdom, influence, and impact.

also

Author & Speaker ‘Who Am I Now? – Feminine Wisdom Unmasked Uncensored’ (www.IsabelBanerjee.com)

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/isabelalexanderbanerjee/

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If you have questions about this episode, please send me an email at Hello@TheEncoreCatalyst.com

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Hello, and welcome back, my online friends!

Today is National Best Friend Day here in the USA, on June the 8th, 2021.

As I'm recording this, and thinking about all of you, and all of the wonderful

friends that I've had in my lifetime...

and I have still today.

I think that Best Friend Day should be every day!

This is a special year to put our attention on what we do to deserve our

friendships, and how we nurture them, and keep them for a long, long time.

I'm thinking about this in the context right now of having been through...

and still...

for many of us, experiencing the impact of COVID-19...

The global pandemic, the lockdowns and social isolation that we experienced.

Imagine the huge Impact that has had on our friendships, and our relationships.

Now looking back in the rear view mirror, over 16 months or so...

During that period...

Tell me...

Who showed up for you?

Who were the friends who showed up?...

We knew, and felt they were out there, and we could count on them...

Even when we couldn't be together in person.

And tell me...

Did you, like I did, experience some surprises about who did not show up?...

As a friend during this challenging time.

Hm.

And...

Who did you reconnect with?

What friends from the past that you'd kind of lost touch with...

That while you were confined to home...

Spending more time on social media...

You were able to reach out and reconnect with, and reconstitute that friendship.

And here's the bonus...

This might've also been a time for you to cultivate some brand new friendships.

That may grow into Best Friends Forever.

Personally, I have made several new friends during COVID, that I probably

wouldn't have, if I had not been forced to stay at home, and reinvent myself...

Again...

in fact, the Lift As You Climb Movement was born with the encouragement

of new sisters of the heart...

Around the globe, that I met in an online community, during COVID.

Since we've been faced with so much uncertainty and disruption in

the last year and a half, it isn't that surprising, that friends and

relationships that are dear to us...

Are very much on our mind.

And that's been a real catalyst for me...

To write a couple of articles and blogs, and I published two other

episodes on this podcast about friends.

One is called REAL Friends, and I capitalized R E A L just to

convey the impact of true versus superficial relationships, on

how we live our legacies.

In the podcast episode, BFF Not Forever, I spilled my guts, about

the heartache of being dumped by a girlfriend, that I thought was a BFF.

For your ease, I think those are podcast episodes, 7 and 8...

If you want to go back and listen to them later, I'll include

the links in the show notes.

I've had a lot of discussions in my circle of friends about the changing dynamics

of relationships with women, as we get older and our interests change.

I published a new blog this week about that topic.

And I'll include that also in the show notes.

Basically I'm saying that perhaps not all friendships.

Are intended to last forever.

Some friendships really serve us well and teach us important lessons in our life.

As the poem says...

For a season or for a reason.

Understanding this, and graciously accepting it, are not always in sync.

Perhaps it's easier to know that some BFFs are actually intended to be...

Best friends for now.

If you're traveling in my orbit.

You know, I've also been talking a lot lately about living an epic

life, and celebrating how many more years, months, and days I have...

To live that epic life...

Alive to live my legacy...

and really not focused on dying.

But focus on living.

Friendships are a very, very important part of that.

I want to spend the next decades of my life with the people that help me.

To be the best possible version...

of Me.

That means, I must take stock, and evaluate my existing relationships...

Regularly...

Like a health checkup...

If we're not changing and growing...

We're dying.

It's the same for all relationships.

We simply can't take the health of our friendships for granted.

They need tending and cultivating and sometimes...

They need weeding.

It may feel uncomfortable, to think in terms of cultivating,

or culling your friends list...

But really, I do believe it's necessary for our own successful

evolution, and becoming more of us.

As women we're constantly reinventing, and growing, and

changing, and transforming...

I know I am...

After all...

I am the author of Who Am I Now?

So I invite you to think about this...

If you don't assess your friendships and make room...

How can new friends rise up in your life?

As I transform into who I want to become next.

I need space to invite my friends.

To go along on that journey with me.

My Encore...

My evolutionary experience, will be so wonderful, when supported and

shared with all the right friends, choosing to curate and cultivate the

friendships, to support you to live your legacy, by being the best you.

And therefore, you are able to lift others, and help them climb...

Is in my mind...

The ultimate in self-love, self-care, nd self-sustainability.

But how do you do this effectively?

How do you remain aware?

If a friendship is still healthy?

In our busy zoom zoom world...

Is it obvious?

Or...

More often...

Does it creep slowly into our consciousness?...

That a friendship has changed, and may belong in a different category,

than it might have been before?

It may also be true, that some friendships should be promoted...

To a higher priority in your friendship categories, and that there is more

work to be done, to develop and nurture and celebrate that friendship.

I have firsthand experience of some of those examples...

Sometimes you meet somebody and there's a connection instantly.

But in the present moment, you're not sure...

Why you feel that way...

Or...

Where that really fits into your life.

But allowed the time, and the opportunity to figure it out, you discover...

This is why we were meant to meet each other.

This is why we were meant to grow, and do something meaningful...

Together.

We have to make space for these new relationships...

New friendships, to thrive.

Part of your friendship review may be...

Painful and bittersweet...

To reflect on the friends that are no longer with us.

Perhaps, as in the case of a few, very, very dear friends of mine...

They have left this planet.

Or...

They may have left us for other friends, or other priorities in their

life and we don't quite fit anymore, in the future they are pursuing.

And then...

There's the very last bucket...

and that's the one where the bucket got kicked right out from under you...

I talk about my own experience with this in episode 7 of the podcast.

Sometimes a friend just divorces you, and leaves ya just sitting on the curb...

Wondering what the hell happened?

If thinking about all of this makes your head hurt and your gut tighten up...

You're not alone.

In the past decade or so I was going through personal transformations

faster than Alice in Wonderland...

and I was so confused, and conflicted, about who I was, and who I needed, and

wanted, on this part of my life's journey.

No one had prepared me for this.

In the midst of my own 50 something identity crisis, I now also had to

figure out if my friends we're going to make the transition with me.

As uncomfortable as it felt, I knew I had to take a hard look at who surrounded

me, and if we were growing together.

As part of my Encore methodology, I created a Friendship Health Checkup.

I needed a step by step...

Let's be honest with myself...

Process.

To get clear on my relationships...

My needs from relationships, and my own worthiness, as a best friend.

I'm still using that process today...

10 plus years later, and it is served me very well.

In honor of best friends day...

Today...

Tomorrow and every day...

I encourage you to be your own BFF.

Download my Friendship Health Checkup, and use it freely.

It's easy to obtain at the following URL: www.MyEncoreFriends.com

and I will put that in the show notes, In case you forget.

So for now...

I prescribe...

Take 2 Vitamin Gs...

and call me in the morning.

But remember...

Your Encore and your evolution, do not require you to leave behind any

of the best parts of who you are now.

It only requires you to make room for the best YOU yet to come.