It is a gray sky day today. We are in the middle of the winter and the sun just does not shine a lot during this season. People get very depressed this time of year. What do you need to get you past the dreariness of gray sky days? You need a cheerleader.

If you are in marketing, you know that despite your mood, you are paid to inspire people to buy your products, think good things about your company, and build a positive impression of your brand. That can be a challenge on a gray sky day like today. How do you find the positive energy to speak about sunshine when you are experiencing clouds? You need a cheerleader – someone who will lift you up on the dreariest of days and encourage you to give it your all. I find that successful people have such a person in their lives. For some people, that is their parents. For others, it is a spouse or some other relative. It might be a teacher or a coach. It could be a coworker. It is the person who will stand for you when everyone else is sitting down. Do you remember the 1984 movie, The Natural where the aging baseball player, Roy Hobbs (Robert Redford) was inspired by a standing Iris Gaines (Glenn Close) during a critical at bat? Does that sort of thing only happen in the movies? No, it happens to successful people in real life.

So who is your cheerleader? If you don’t have one, you need to find one. But while you are looking for someone to encourage you, look for these qualities as well.

· Find someone who will tell you the truth, but won’t tear you up in the process. Critics are pretty easy to come by… everyone has an opinion! Look for someone who will be honest with you, but won’t dismember you in the process.

· Look for someone who has walked in your shoes. I have found that advice transfers best when it is given by someone who has tread the same path ahead of you.

· Find someone who will hold you accountable for your actions. Beyond telling you the truth, look for someone who will circle back to you to find out if you are staying on course.

Here is my challenge. Find a Barnabas and find a Timothy. What do I mean by that? A Barnabas is a person who has more life experiences than you – maybe older – who can encourage you and advise you from their breadth of knowledge. A Timothy is a person coming behind you to whom you can be an encourager. See how that works? You get something, you give something. In doing both, you will find that gray sky days are much more tolerable.