12 Ways to Instantly Improve Your Relationships
Your ability to connect and develop meaningful and lasting relationships is the crucial component for an abundant and satisfying life. Whether it’s in the form of fortunes, friendships, family connectedness or other personal treasures there is a direct correlation between the quality of your relationships and your personal and professional goals.
To improve your relationships ask yourself the following questions. Then make a conscious effort to work on those areas where you did not have a positive response.
This article is an excerpt from the book, “Get Along with Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere … 8 Keys to Creating Enduring Connections with Customers, Co-Workers – even Kids” by Arnold Sanow and Sandra Strauss:
· Are you making good connections a daily priority?
· Do your words and actions usually prompt positive responses from others?
· When problems arise, do you seek solutions that hold the greatest possibility of satisfying mutual needs?
· Do you claim your fair share of mistakes, misunderstandings or other misbehaviors and seek to repair them? ( remember the 6 most important words in the English language are “I admit I made a mistake”)
· Do you constantly monitor what’s important to people in every arena of your influence and explore ways to honor those needs?
· Can people count on you? Do you keep your promises?
· Do your business associates, friends, and others realize how much you appreciate their talents, friendship, support and investment of their personal energy? What are some ways you might acknowledge how much you value them and their contributions?
· Have you experienced a “falling out” with someone, resulting in unfinished business? If so, what might you do to repair, heal or restore it?
· Are you holding a grudge or resentment toward anyone? If so, how is it serving your best interests? How long do you want to stay connected to that experience? What conditions make it difficult to forgive those involved and let it go?
· Is there any relationship that’s not working as well as you like? What might you do to improve it?
· Do you have a special way of adding your personal signature of uniqueness to your working relationships – special things you do to create good feelings with your colleagues and customers? If not, how might you add your own special signature for creating an enduring impression? What might further fortify your unforgettable nature that reinforces your values?
· What legacies are you creating in your personal relationships that reflect and reinforce your character and your values? How do you want people to think of you, and are your actions supporting that perception?
Enduring connections are active in nature. They require the right actions and attitudes to make them last and withstand the forces that might break them apart such as negative self talk that can steer them off course, judgments that can obstruct or sever the connections we desire, and negativity that blocks the expression of our personal best.
Even when it is difficult to do so, extend to others what you wish to receive and relish in your relationships. When people are unreasonable, judgmental, self-centered, irrational, or treat you carelessly, recklessly, thoughtlessly, or in any way that is less than you desire, remember your power of choice — to choose whether your words and actions are likely to generate experiences and outcomes with positive impact.
For relationships to last through thick and thin, tough times and turbulence, and all the moments that test our patience and perseverance along the way, we must guide each one with the wisdom of the heart. Enduring connections are actively cultivated; lethargy is lethal to them.