Learn to Lean

 

As the phrase goes, “no man is an island.” There are times on this road to success that we have to lean on others for support.

 

Ask for assistance and let yourself be helped and contributed to. Get those around you involved in your journey of success--work together as a team. Recruit acquaintances, loved ones, neighbors, bosses, fellow employees, and so forth and invite their support.

 

There are few things as useful in life as a solid support network. In the great times you have someone there to share them and in the bad you have someone there to help you through it; a support network provides you a feeling of stability as well as a safety net. A support network, however, does call for time, lots of dedication and a right approach to correctly build and maintain. Follow these steps to establish and keep a solid support network around you.

 

Make the time. A support network takes time to build and develop in a stable, organic way. Likewise, allowing a support network to grow will give you a clue of whom you are able to trust, for what reason and to what degree. Trusting someone in one area doesn’t necessarily mean that you could or even should trust him or her in another; take the time to grow slow and know for sure who has your back. Deliberately build your network to be diverse. Diversity commonly promotes force in a system. Cultivate a lot of different meaningful relationships so that dissimilar parts of your emerging support network may help you deal with different sorts of issues.

 

Keep in touch. On a regular basis connect with the individuals in your support network. Making a fast phone call or writing an e-mail just to say "hello", or even a personal message on social media lets individuals in your support network know that you're there for them even as much as they are there for you.

 

Utilize the Golden Rule as your guide. You will get as much out of your support network as you place into it. Zig Ziglar always said, “you will get everything in life that you want, if you help enough people get what they want.” If you want a good friend, you must first be a good friend, this holds true in any type of support group whether it is professional or personal. A Component of constructing a support network is giving up your time and energy to assist other people, even if they claim not to need the help or if you are busy. To construct a really strong support network, offer other people as much as, or even more than, you expect in return.

 

Power Question:

What one change would help propel you forward?

Lean toward your success