Strengthen Your Relationships: Keys to Personal and Professional Success

Life has always been about building successful relationships, forming support networks, and creating a community. A place where we feel in harmony, safe, supported, and share similar goals and values.

The Importance of Successful Relationships

Successful relationships are fundamental to achieving our personal and professional goals. They provide us with support, inspire us to grow, and open doors to new opportunities.

Overcoming Limiting Beliefs in Building Relationships

There are several factors that sometimes make it difficult to build relationships. When we are comfortable, in small comfort zones, we believe that making an extra effort to create support networks is not necessary. Our limiting beliefs make us think that we shouldn't have to make more friends, participate in more forums, that what we have is enough, and therefore we stop building and sowing to create more community.

Another limiting belief is thinking that forcing ourselves to build more relationships can seem inauthentic and forced. People tell me that when they feel they have to do it, it can seem self-serving, like they are "buttering up" the person, and that it goes against their principles.

Something very important for building successful relationships is to think from a place where you can share, offer value, rather than what you can get from the other person. By being transparent and authentic in the intention to give, you automatically receive. The problem is that we don't stop to reflect on this.

When we hear the word "mediocre," we feel offended. "If I'm not mediocre, if I'm always active and working." This doesn't necessarily mean that you're not doing anything to improve yourself. It can be subtle hidden vices and limiting beliefs that prevent you from seeing clearly that you can do things differently and that, of course, you can connect with and meet more people, because you never know how that community can support you, or the satisfaction that you can get from contributing.

Practical Tips to Strengthen Your Relationships

What could you do to continue building networks, especially in these times, where there is little social contact and where many people continue to work from home?

Here are some steps:

1. Make a list of the people you have had contact with in the last two or three years.

2. Put at the top of that list the people you haven't spoken to during this time. When was the last time you spoke or messaged that person? If it was three years ago, then put that person at the beginning of your list, and at the end, those with whom your contact has been more frequent.

3. Decide to send a message, make a call, and connect: Ask them to share how they are doing today and what they are doing. Offer support or value in case you can contribute something to their life today. Share topics that you think are valuable and that can influence that person.

If your mind tells you that you're too lazy to talk to someone, then it's a sign that you're comfortable and that it's important to connect with them.

If there aren't enough people on your list, go back 5 years. This is a sign that you are not building or working enough on your network of connections.

As an additional tip, do some reflection where you can describe what benefit you can get from connecting and strengthening relationships, and what the negative cost of doing so would be. You will discover that the list of benefits will always outweigh the list of costs, which means that it is time to invest in building successful relationships.