Building Relationships - Post 394

Each day I try to start out the day by reading different motivational or inspiration pieces. In today's reading I came across a short post by Joel Osteen called "Work on Your Dreams." I found it fit quite nicely with a lot of the things I have been posting for the past year or so and I have included his post below for you to enjoy as well.

I have spent a lot of time in the past couple of years on self development, goal setting, and developing an attitude of prosperity and gratitude instead of an attitude of constraint and servitude. For too many years I have worked 70 to 80 hours per week building other peoples dreams. Yes I have nice things as a result of all that work and thought I was working on my dreams. However, what I discovered in the Master Key Master Mind program was that in reality, autonomy and liberty is what I was truly seeking. Long hours working for others would never get me there. The only way to achieve what I really wanted would be to surround myself with others working toward similar goals. To develop my own mastermind group.

Joel mentions that "you want to be around dream-builders, not dream-crashers" and that you should "prune the relationships around you" that weren't leading you in the right direction. Likewise I have heard many times on this journey of self discovery and self development that your income is an average of the 5 or 10 people that are closest to you in your circle so if you want ot change your income you must change your circle of friends. The problem I had wasn't that I had the wrong circle of friends. My problem was that I had spent so much time chasing the income I had lost all contact with my circle.

So how do I recreate those relationships?

I recently spent some time with Tom Chenault. Tom has mastered the skill of networking with people and developing relationships and he shared how he develops those relationships. He looks for ways to reach out to people and connect with them so he can learn what he can do for them not what they can do for him.

Over the years he has mastered the art of relationship building by perfecting what he calls "The Coffee Shop Interview." He never talks about himself, the entire conversation is focused on them. His goal is to learn what it is that makes them tick. What motivates them and what pops their eyes open at 2 am. The entire premise of the coffee shop interview is to, as he fondly says, "be interested not interesting."

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TODAY’S SCRIPTURE

TODAY’S WORD from Joel and Victoria
Surround yourself with the right people and you can fulfill the dreams God gives you. Put yourself in relationships with people who are not only like-minded, but are also seeking to honor God in their own lives. Here is a thought to consider today: if your friends don’t point you toward God’s goal for you, then they’re not very good friends. You want to be around dream-builders, not dream-crashers!

When you prune the relationships around you, you’re not cutting things out of your life; you’re making room for growth so that you can reach your God-given potential! When you make room for God’s best, you can walk away from the lesser things that the world has to offer.


A PRAYER FOR TODAY
God, I know You have my best in mind and in Your plans. Thank You for placing a dream in my heart and for giving me people to help lead me towards that dream. I pray that my relationships will honor You. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
— Joel & Victoria Osteen

“ ‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ says the LORD. ‘They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.’ ”
(Jeremiah 29:11, NLT)