A couple months ago I had the opportunity to listen to a great speaker who talked about the importance of relationships. Our relationships in life really define our experience. And as we develop them, nurture them, and take care of them as the precious jewels that they are, we will find satisfaction in life. Now this speaker talked about 4 types of relationships we must make sure are “right” or are in harmony in order to be happy. These 4 are also in order of importance with #1 being the most important and on down.
Inward Relationship
The number one most important relationship we must develop in life is our inward relationship—how we treat our self. Without a good inward relationship, we are destined to struggle. If we do not respect, build up and take care of ourselves, how can we expect anyone else to do so? Developing our inward relationship is so important! Think about it, how do we talk to ourselves, how do we treat ourselves? If we are constantly criticizing or putting our self down than we need to change. We need to build ourselves up, talk positively, look for the good within us. We need to not take ourselves too seriously and forgive ourselves when we make mistakes or fall short of our expectations. This is our most critical relationship that we must take care of and develop in order to have success in life.
Upward Relationship
The next critical relationship is our upward relationship or our relationship with God or our Supreme Being. Having a genuine relationship with God helps us to care for others and our self. It helps us be grateful, humble, and wise. It builds confidence in the fact that we are unique, special and cared about. It comforts us in times of difficulty and distress. It gives us hope that we can do better and that life can be better. Developing our upward relationship is important to success and satisfaction in life.
Downward Relationship
How do we treat others who may be viewed as “below us” in terms of how the world sees it? How do we treat our subordinates at work, or our children, or the janitor who cleans our office? How do we treat those who are not as fortunate as us? Seeing them as people and treating them with respect and dignity and helping them when prompted to is so important to our personal satisfaction in life and says a lot about who we are as a person. We must take care of our downward relationships and see people as equals. We are all just people—all with very similar fears, worries, and problems. Treating all people equal and helping others when possible is looking out for those downward relationships.
Outward Relationship
Finally our relationships with our friends, co-workers, spouse, family, and others. These relationships with our peers is important for our well-being and happiness. We must seek to always value them and avoid taking them for granted. Relationships even with our closes friends and family members can be ruined and destroyed quickly if we do not constantly nurture them. Don’t take lightly the responsibility to protect these relationships.
Relationships are so crucial to our overall satisfaction and development in life. We need to become masters at nurturing and developing all of our relationships including our inward, upward, downward, and outward relationships. After all, if we don’t have each other, what value do we have in life? As we learn to master our four critical relationships in life, our satisfaction and success will significantly increase.
No comments:
Post a Comment