The power of digging deeper with your relationships and how it will affect your life

The connection economy of today is very different from the industrial one we’re moving out of. Seth Godin has incredible insight into the future. He has long ago dubbed that we were moving into a new economy and many people never saw it. His exact words were “This recession is a forever recession.”

To me, that means something awesome.

It means we get to recreate things. We get to redevelop processes and find new ways for business and life to work. We have the opportunity to do something our world has never been able to do since the beginning of time.

Building relationships are a key to success today.

I’m not just saying that

We can pull evidence from companies across the globe that have failed due to lack of engagement with people, individuals who have been passed up for jobs because they didn’t know the “right guy” and business that has flourished simply because they decided relationships where important.

Connection is an essential part to building a real relationship with people. I call this connection branding because the overarching term is that we are making a connection with people in one (or more) of three ways.

Building a relationship is just one way to build a connection.

I wish I could tell you I was always intentional about building relationships with people. I really do…but I simply can’t.

Intentionality is something we have to strive for and it’s very difficult to achieve. But the more intentional we are about the different aspects of our lives, the more we will grow in those areas.

Building relationships is something I strive to be more intentional about these days. That could be work, yes, but often just on a personal level. You see, the more we move into this connection economy, the more connections with people will become a vital part of success in any part of life.

We must build deep connections with anyone we want to have a relationship with. This definitely means our spouse. It means our children, our coworkers, our customer, employees and family members. It even means the people we have on our Twitter and Facebook accounts.

It has been said that we can only truly have 150 relationships. This comes from the research of a British anthropologist, Robin Dunbar. It’s called Dunbar’s number and says that we can only effectively build anywhere between 100 and 230 real relationships at any given time.

If that’s true, we need to be selective with who we dig deep with, but I have no doubt that if we dig deep with those relationships, we’ll be able to achieve mostly anything we want in life.

I’m a big believer in living the life of your dreams. That’s the core of everything I do because I believe that we were created by God and put here for an incredible reason. That we all have a purpose and it’s divine.

But relationships are something we can’t take lightly. We have to nourish them, grow them, work on them. They don’t just come about because we “like” a status on Facebook or wave to them when we see them in the store. Those aren’t relationships, those are just interactions.

And even that is probably stretching it.

The reason I mentioned Dunbar’s number is simply because we have to understand the power in connection. If we truly connect with 150 people at any given time, then we have have a remarkable impact in their lives, and they in ours.

These are not just surface level relationships, they are real, deep and truly beneficial relationships for both parties involved. This allows us to really build up rapport with people and help to add to each other’s lives in various ways.

To help you understand this power of building true connections, I want to delve into a quote that has stuck with me for some time. It’s from Jim Rohn and is short and sweet.

“Wherever you are, be there.”

Let that sink in for a moment. “Wherever you are, be there.”

In a world where we are all ADD and can’t seem to focus on anything for more than 3.5 seconds, this tells us something incredible. If I’m with my wife, I need to give her my full attention. If I’m at work, I need to give it my full attention. If I’m in church, I need to be worshipping fully.

Whatever it is, I need to be there, fully.

Apply it business. If a customer has a need, I need to address it, fully. If I have a deadline to meet, hit it perfectly. Will it happen everytime? No. Of course not. But we can be intentional about it. Just like we are about our relationships.

If I’m working to build a relationship with a potential customer, be there. Answer questions, offer suggestions, exceed expectations. Sadly, it doesn’t take much to exceed expectations these days. That gives us the edge in any relationship if we will just be intentional and pay attention.

The power of relationships is incredible. It cannot be overlooked when trying to build a connection with someone. There is no doubt that this particular Super Power is the easiest to apply, but the most difficult to remain on track and actually follow through.

People that use the power of relationships in their lives will grow astronomically.

Take Action

Is relationship building something you are being intentional about? Are you focused on building connections through this?

If relationships are your focus, stick with it. Maybe you prefer another Super Power to build connections, that’s fine. Just don’t neglect this one entirely.

What is one thing you can do today to dig deeper into one relationship? Tell us in the comments below.

Got a friend that needs this? Share it with them. They’ll thank you.