If you’re like me, when you see something that claims to be the “most important” or “the best” or “#1”, you take a deep breath and say, “ok, here we go!”
I’m getting all hyperbolic on you with my title but when you finish, I think you’re going to agree with me. Is that presumptuous? Maybe! But, I get to do that because, what we are doing right now is actually part of what I’m talking about. We’re connected in some way. You’ve either come to my blog, or the site on which this article is posted because you were intrigued by the article title or because you know me in some way. And, that is not something that I should simply shrug off or take for granted. Why? Well, the world is funny and you never know which twists and turns it will take. You’re in my world and I’m in yours and in some odd way, we have formed a relationship. Yep, that’s the word…relationship.
I wish that there was a class on relationships, relationship building, relationship maintenance, and relationship importance that was given when I was a child. Yes, we learn relationship lessons from our parents, our teachers and most of the people we interact with. But, truth be told, many of those relationship aren’t great examples. If you happened to grow up in a situation where you witnessed a lot of fighting, then you have a different example than I do. What if there was a class that talked about how important it is to recognize relationships, the different kinds, how to nurture them, how to categorize them and how to contribute to them?
When we talk about relationships, most people mentally go to romantic relationships. Then, they might slip over to family relationships. Then, they might meander into friendships. But, they rarely go into work relationships, or the relationship that you form with the check-in person at the airport, or the cab-driver who dropped you off, or the homeless guy who just asked you for some change. These are all relationships and they form pieces of our lives. How we connect them and the importance we place on them definitely impacts our day.
What if you woke up each morning and relationships were the first thing that you thought about?
What if your first question was, “How many new relationships will I intentionally form today?”
What if you asked, “Who can I make a difference for today?”
What if you purposely said, “I’m going to serve the heck out of someone today!”
What if you understood that every interaction forms a relationship that makes up a little piece of who you are and who you become?
We take it for granted on most days. But, even though I may not see you or touch you personally, we’ve still just connected. Who knows, we might actually meet one day and you will tell me what you thought about the things I’ve written. If you leave a comment regularly, I’ll tell you what I thought about your comments :-). I’ll be nice, I promise. But we have formed a relationship. The only thing that we need to figure out is how deep we want it to be. Do we want it to be more personal? Do we want it to be casual? Do we want it to be fleeting or long term?
It’s complex, yes. But, it’s important that I am keenly aware of it’s existence whether I intended it or not. It’s how the world runs. Our world RUNS on relationships. Some people have them figured out and others don’t. Some people have figured out how to leverage them and others have figured out how to manipulate and ruin them. But, they are there. What if we decided to intentionally honor them all and treat them as if they were the most important thing in the world? The truth is, they ARE!!
What are your thoughts about this? Can you think of a more important word than relationship? Leave your answer in the comments.
P.S. – Before you say LOVE, let me just say that love IS relationship and can’t exist without it. Yes, a bit different than my normal articles but I’ve got some follow-ups coming.