There’s an old joke that goes something like this:

The word of the day is catacomb. I will now prepare to use it in a sentence: Don King’s hair is so crazy, somebody needs to get that cat a comb.

Hey, I said it was an old joke; I never said it was good one!

In case you’ve never heard of Don King or his famous hair, he is a prominent boxing promoter, most famous for publicizing Muhammad Ali’s Rumble in the Jungle with George Foreman and his Thrilla in Manila with Joe Frazier. Known for being brash and outspoken, King’s job as a promoter was to get fans pumped about upcoming fights by touting his boxer’s skill and telling anybody who would listen how great the boxer was.

The older I get, the more I realize we could all use our own personal version of Don King- albeit maybe one who’s a little less shady than the original.

We all need a promoter, someone who believes in us 100 percent, who tells other people how great we are, even when, or maybe especially when, we can’t see greatness in ourselves. Someone who will bet it all on us and who will talk junk to the haters on our behalf.

I’ll be honest, it’s taken me awhile to get here. In my younger years, I was deluded enough to think that if I pointed out someone else’s strengths, I was somehow taking away from myself. Truthfully, I guess I wasn’t deluded as much as I was insecure. But that idea simply isn’t true.

It’s funny how turning 40 can change things, and I don’t just mean my new reliance on readers and face cream. This decade has changed my perspective and has given me a security in my own skin I didn’t have before. Now I can see that shining a light on someone else’s talents doesn’t diminish my own. Lifting someone else up doesn’t mean I’m putting myself down. In fact, the opposite is true. Iron sharpens iron (Proverbs 27:17), and I know that surrounding myself with my squad of rock stars just makes me better. I’m so proud of them for fighting for important causes, leading influential organizations, loving on their families and friends, and sharing their gifts with others. They motivate me more than they know.

The world is full of naysayers, voices that say we can’t or we shouldn’t. Voices that say we’re too young, too old, too slow, too weak, too late, too weird, too different.

Let this be a challenge to be the voice that pushes through the negativity and cheers for the good. Be the voice that says someone else is so funny, so talented, so kind, so creative, so courageous. In other words, let’s follow the command of I Thessalonians 5:11 and “build each other up and encourage one another.”

I’m thankful to be blessed with so many Don Kings who build me up each and every day, who see things in me I don’t always see in myself, and who encourage me to follow my dreams. My goal is to return the favor.

So, if your friend has a business, rep her swag. If your friend gets a promotion, take her out and toast her success. And if your friend is having a bad hair day, give that cat a comb and tell her she looks awesome. After all, we only have one life to live, and it’s way more fun when we do it celebrating each other.