An important question to consider is – how valuable is your network?
How valuable are the people – or relationship capital – in your circle of influence?
We all have a few circles of influence; picture yourself in the center.
The tight circle around you is going to be primarily family, your spouse/significant other, maybe one or two very close friends or business associates.
The next circle out is probably community-based – people from church, trade associations, or other social gatherings.
Next is most likely the people you have done business with on some level.
And following that may be your zillions of contacts on Facebook or similar areas, where you don’t really know everyone personally.
Your network lies within those rings of influence.
The closer a circle someone is in, the more significant they should be in your life.
A lot of the time people end up in our closer circles by default – whomever simply decides they feel like spending time with us or vice versa.
Other than your spouse, do you actively choose who you work with, or spend your time with?
Or do you just let it happen?
Do you hire people just to fill a spot?
Do you attend a conference just to get the continuing education credit?
I consider my biggest asset (other than myself) to be the people that I know – my relationship capital.
I try to be very intentional about who I put in my closest rings, and how I give out my time.
If you don’t have good boundaries, you can get strung out trying to be too many things to too many people.
Will some people get mad or have hurt feelings if you put up boundaries?
Maybe – but not typically, if you handle it the right way!
You’ve got to have some gatekeepers in place.
I have an executive assistant handle all of my communications, email, social media, phone, etc – letting through messages only from those in my innermost circles.
Anyone who’s not in my inner circles and wants to be?
I make them do the work to get to me.
It’s also what I’ve done when I’ve been introduced to, or was impressed by someone, and my gut instinct determined that this was a person I’d like to get to know.
If you’re strategic and have a strong network, you’re only one step away from getting connected to nearly anyone, or from finding the resources to overcome any challenge.
It’s very valuable to sit down and map out and examine your circles of influence.
Start with your inner circle and go out from there.
Do at least 3 or 4 bands and see who the people you spend the most time with are.
Jim Rohn wisely said, “You become the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”
If you feel dissatisfied with where you’re at in life, take a look at who’s in your closest circles.
You may need to push them to an outer ring – so you can instead spend more time with people who do challenge and motivate you.
I like getting out of my comfort zone and into groups or communities where I’m definitely not the smartest person in the room.
The intimidation is not a bad thing – it reminds me to step my game up and stay authentic!
I was thinking about these questions as I made rounds through a few of my groups this week:
Who am I?
Who am I attracted to, and who is attracted to me?
Are they the right people both ways?
Intentionally keep questions like these in mind as you move through life, and you will see an increase in the quality of your network.
To your freedom!
-David
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