Whether you are a consultant, coach, business owner, doctor, professional, corporate elite or student, whatever your profession is, moving towards your dream requires taking courageous steps. Making long-lasting changes requires us to create a network of support. Surrounding yourself with a community of nice-giving-good people, committed to their own growth, will give you tremendous emotional strength to move forward.

Napoleon Hill, the author of Think and Grow Rich, changed the lives of many successful business people. In this book, Hill shares the importance of creating and using the power of a mastermind group. A mastermind group is two or more people who come together to help each other toward the achievement of a common objective.

Do you need to improve your public speaking skills? You can attend the Toastmaster's Club. For your spiritual growth, you can attend a church and a focus group. To always be improving your professional skills, you can participate in special interest groups of your professional community.

Whenever growth requires that you move out of my Comfort Zone, can you count on a few special "nudgers" who will help you cross the border out of your comfort zone? Whenever you need to get back to the routine of exercising, do you have exercise partners to bug you until you get out of the door to accompany them to a workout. Whenever you need emotional support, can you call or meet with a few good friends and loving family members who care about you enough to listen to you?

I once thought that certain people are just more disciplined, energetic, organized, beautiful, healthy, fit, emotional stable, smarter, brighter, and higher achieving than others. Now, I am realizing that those who are so good at what they do have not only invested a great amount of time and effort but they have also surrounded themselves with people who serve to support their growth in specific areas of need.

Jack Canfield, co-author of New York Times Bestselling Chicken Soup for the Soul, once belonged to a mastermind group that included a doctor, a consultant, a photographer and another author, an expert in the area of relationship who later also became very successful. They would meet every Tuesday morning from 6:30 to 8:30 before departing for their jobs. This required a great amount of commitment. Jack has shared that everyone in the group went on to unprecedented levels of professionally and financially success.

Challenge for yourself

To you, what matters most? In which area do you need a breakthrough? Can you think of three or four other people with similar values and goals with whom you could form a mastermind group?

This is more than just forming a circle of friends. A mastermind group is formed with a specific purpose. Make your purpose clear to the participants. This will ensure that everyone is clear about the objective of the meetings.

Is it for people that want to keep their marriage sizzling hot? Is it for corporate refugees that want to change their career? Is it for business people that want to get better at communication and leadership skills? Are you all business owners who want to expand your businesses? Are you ready to form your own support group for a personal breakthrough in the areas that matter the most to you?

Spend time thinking and defining what would be the focus goals of the mastermind group. Consider these suggestions:

- Be very clear about the area of support that you need.
- List the names of people that you think you'd like to be in your group, and put in your success journal - By (XYZ day), October X, I will finish contacting all the people on the list. You may be surprised to see how many people would appreciate you taking the lead to help each other to have breakthroughs in that area of your life.
- Your objective doesn't need to be grandeur; the commitment does not need to be long-term.

A few months ago, I was in a seminar of 25 people. I wanted to learn well a new skill. So, I sent out an email inviting people to see whether anyone was interested in meeting together to sharpen that skill.

Eight people responded. Five people faithfully stayed in the group. It turned out to be a relatively easy way to pick up a skill. In six weeks, we were happy with the results we each realized and decided to end our meetings. Since then, we have kept in touch, updating each other on ways in which we creatively use the skill acquired.

From small to big, the important thing is to learn to form your own support system. If you want to go far, you need people around you.