Relationships Are Key for Setting Yourself Up for Success

Success means different things to different people. Some may equate success with money and things while others may feel successful if they have and maintain great relationships with most everyone in their lives.

Climbing the corporate ladder to achieve a pinnacle in a career path is also a measure of success for some people who are driven to succeed.

At any particular time in life, a person may be successful in one or more areas, but very ineffective in others. If you want to be “successful,” you must first define what success means to you.

Then, you can begin to work on the areas necessary to fulfill that desire.

You can break down your plan into parts that are easier to handle. For example, if you want to lose 20 pounds, you’ll first need to develop a plan and set goals.

The plan might include a diet that you know you can stick to, exercise that feels like fun and gathering inspiration so that you can meet all of those goals.

Achieving Financial Success

Since so many people equate true success with monetary worth, let’s focus on that. In today’s economy, simply paying the bills on time might be a financial goal you’re trying to reach.

There are basically 4 key elements involved in achieving financial success – mindset, commitment, education, and action – and you need to build relationships to make all of these work.

These elements all work together in solving the mysteries of achieving the monetary success you want from life.

Developing a Winning Financial Mindset

A positive financial mindset is essential to achieve monetary prosperity. If you think poverty, you’ll live in poverty – but, if you think wealth and financial success – you’ll be much more likely to achieve it.

And if you build relationships with people who have a similar wealth-building mindset, it will rub off on you.

Everyone knows that what you spend your emotional energy on is what you reap from it. If you’re putting all your time and energy into something that doesn’t make you happy – like a dead-end job – you’ll grow old thinking of “what might have been.”

Fortunately, there are ways to change your negative thinking and get back on the road to financial independence and even wealth. Every positive step in your life begins with a decision.

If you haven’t yet made a decision about what you want to achieve in life, you have no life’s purpose and your life’s path will reflect that as the days, months and years pass by.

Surround yourself with successful people and foster relationships with them. Mentors are important in any successes you might have, so develop those relationships as much as possible.

Focus your thinking on what you want out of life and don’t let it go – not even for a moment. Developing a positive mindset takes patience, practice and determination to succeed.

After you’ve accomplished some of the goals you set for yourself, you’ll recognize success and how it feels. The more you’ve accomplished, the less chance there is of losing your focus.

Educate yourself by figuring out who you want to learn from. If debt is your goal, see if Dave Ramsey’s lessons suit your style. If not, try Suze Orman or another debt and finances guru.

Learn about ways to make and invest money and choose methods that you like and excel at. There are no shortcuts to achieving wealth, and you must spend time educating yourself about how to spend your time getting to your ultimate financial goals.

The great power of Rome certainly wasn’t built in a day – and neither will your financial wealth.

Create a financial plan that includes goals, both large and small. Celebrate the small victories that you achieve and keep them at the forefront of your mind as you move on to the next goal.

Periodically revamp your plan as you take action. Things change – like the economy and unforeseen hurdles in your life – and rather than abandoning a successful mindset, you must work hard to keep it.

Document everything about your thinking and goals so that you create a path that you can refer to when you need it to reaffirm goals or become motivated.

Documentation is also important so you can have a paper trail of everything you do. It’s smart financial planning to protect yourself with documentation.

Remember to have fun along the way. Enjoy life as you’re planning for your financial future so that you won’t become bored or jaded about the whole plan.

Relationships Can Be Tricky

To be successful in any relationship – whether with a friend, family member, spouse, love interest, co-workers, mentor or boss – you have to work at them to be successful.

You won’t keep a friend for very long if you let the relationship become stagnant, so you must keep in touch at least periodically.

If you become so engrossed in your career or job, the relationship with a spouse or family members can suffer. So, balance is the key for keeping a relationship intact and thriving.

Some entrepreneurs get bogged down in this manner because they’re building a business solo – with a goal of spending more time with their family.

Unfortunately, they spend years trying to increase their level of success, so they dedicate too much time to cultivating their income and not enough time enjoying the fruits of their labors with those that they love.

Make sure you take time each day to tell those you care about why they’re special to you. And think about it yourself as a way to feel grateful each day.

Don’t focus on the negative aspects of your spouse – think about that you do love about them.

Trust & Betrayal in the Workplace: Building Effective Relationships in Your Organization, Second edition [Paperback]

Customer Review:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"An exceptional analysis of how to build or repair trust,"
By Ira Chaleff (Washington, D.C.)
Trust and Betrayal in the Workplace by Dennis & Michelle Reina This book tackles one of the most pervasive and intractable dynamics which degrade the quality of work relationships and job satisfaction.

The contribution that this book makes is to provide models for analyzing how trust is undermined which then suggests ways that it might be restored. It's not helpful to just say "I don't trust him." Using the Reina's model of contractual trust, communication trust and competence trust, you would describe that breakdown more precisely.

"I don't trust his behavior - it's too inconsistent" or "I don't trust that I'll get the information I need from him" or "I don't trust that he'll be able to get this job done."

With the problem better articulated, it becomes possible to address it and a choice can then be made about whether to do so. The Reina's have made the subjects of Trust and Betrayal the core of their life's work to date and it shows in such simple and profound insights as "Betrayal is an experience determined by the betrayed."

This is what organization executives so often miss and which saddles them with disgruntled work forces. The Reina's go on to draw distinctions between intentional and unintentional, and major and minor betrayal.

This gives executives a way to understand the dynamic without ladening them or their employees with guilt or defensiveness. The book is full of exercises one can use to gain competence in building trust or repairing trust that has been damaged.

It takes a real adult to take responsibility for building and repairing trust rather than just writing off others as being untrustworthy. The Reina's challenge us to be adults.

How to Overcome Negativity in the Workplace: An Audiotape Presentation

by CareerTrack

Product Description

On Audio Cassette: Training to help you create a more positive, productive work environment.

Customer Review:
5.0 out of 5 stars

"Excellent Resource!"
By David (Corvallis, Oregon)

I found the tapes to be interesting to listen to and highly effective at teaching how to deal with negativity in the workplace.

They helped not only deal with it but avoid it from the begining.

Dealing with troublesome people

Relationship self help tips:

If your type of work exposes you to different types of people daily, then in most probability you have met people that are troublesome and difficult to get along with. You would rather avoid these people but your work forces you to interact with them.

Aside from your workplace, there may be other events such as social gatherings and extracurricular activities where you might encounter these irritable and irksome people, with no prospect of avoiding or evading them.

Troublesome people are everywhere. They are not criminals or bothersome citizens but they give us difficulty when dealing with them. When you meet people for the first time, you are cautious on their attitudes and personality.

They may appear kind and gentle but once they approach you and talk to you, their attitudes and disposition may change for the worst. They might demand things from you or dominate and control your every behavior.

We don’t want to interact with these people but we might have to in some circumstances. These people may be new to you or you may be familiar with them, such as relatives, co-employees and acquaintances.

These are people you may meet daily and cannot avoid because of your work functions or family relationship. You have to learn to live with them and deal with them.

If handle the situations delicately and diplomatically, you may even get them to like you eventually.

Be positive in your outlook and you might have an easier time interacting with them. Here are a few comments that might help you along.

Try to like all types of people. This may be hard to swallow at the start but once you realize the world is made up of all kinds of people and everybody is unique, you may be able to live with the realization that the differences in people make your life interesting and exciting.

Greet the people cheerfully and genially accept whatever reaction they give you. Remember you can’t expect everyone to act the same way. Don’t be discouraged if they treat you with disrespect. Smile and be sincere in your actions.

Smiling can do a lot in turning the attitudes of a person into a positive nature. Practice smiling sincerely. People will notice if your smile is synthetic and does not reflect your true disposition. Don’t be cynical when talking to people.

A smile should exude warmth, comfort and friendliness. A good sincere smile can make unruly dispositions go away. Be credible and sincere when you smile. If you practice it often, you will notice a smile coming into your face every time you talk to someone.

Listen to difficult people closely. They might be difficult because they are encountering problems or issues which nobody can resolve. Most people are difficult because they have some issues or problems which are constantly bothering them.

Listening to them closely will make you aware of their issues. You might not be able to solve the issues either but you can empathize with them and show your concerns.

You might be able to suggest some other people that could help them resolve their issues. Difficult people may temper down once you show empathy. Be agreeable to their problems.

Don’t be a yes man because they will see you are simply humoring them but rather show your sentiments towards them. Don’t argue with them because the discussions might end up emotional and hard to control. Talk to them. You might be able to understand them deeper and realize the causes for their difficulty.

Difficult people sometimes live on pressure and tension. They may be high achievers but in the process, have become unruly and demanding.

Recognize their accomplishments and compliment them. Show you recognize their hard work and efforts to accomplish their goals.

How to Instantly Connect with Anyone:

96 All-New Little Tricks for Big Success in Relationships [Paperback]

Customer Review:
5.0 out of 5 stars "Humor and depth, a rare combination"
By Ron Peterson (Des Moins, IA)
When looking at the world, different people see different things. Like a football player would notice maneuvers that the average person would miss.

An artist would see many aspects of a painting that the average person wouldn't see. This author looks at everyday interaction between people and sees fascinating things that the average person wouldn't pick up on.

The thing I like about this book is that she turns each of her x-ray visions of people into a technique that anyone can learn. You can't learn to be an expert football player or an artist.

But using Liel's unusual techniques, I sincerely believe that almost anyone can learn to connect with people when they understand her concept of "Emotional Prediction." It is brilliant.

Another thing I like about this book is her writing style. She writes tongue in cheek so you get a big laugh. But it's really significant stuff beneath the humor.

I've only used about half a dozen of the Little Tricks and I've already noticed people responding to me with more warmth than before.

How to Talk to Anyone:

92 Little Tricks for Big Success in Relationships [Paperback]

Customer Review:
5.0 out of 5 stars "confidence 101"
By Browning
I use to be so incredibly shy that I didn't even want to leave my house. At one point my father died and I realized my own mortality and decided to go out and become a better person and to get over my shyness.

I bought a few books on confidence building and books on how to hold conversations with people. I had very bad friends who put me down and who were completely selfish. I just had bad company.

This book helped me so much in understanding how to hold a conversation with people. Leil Lowndes is a great writer and she really understands what it takes to become more confident in your conversation and in yourself as a person.

Could you use this to be phony and superficial? Yup, but that's up to your personality and what you wish to take from this book. I decided to use this to be able to understand how to hold conversations with people and know how to create relationships.

I used this one technique called the flooding smile and that as well as a few other techniques from this book and I'm now dating this beautiful girl and have a few new friends who are positive and make me feel good about myself.

I bought this and the other books by Leil Lowndes. I'd definitely consider this book as one of my Meccas as well as a few other books.

How To Motivate Your Significant Other

It can sometimes be difficult to get yourself motivated, so trying to motivate someone else can be really hard. You may be worried that your attempt will be taken the wrong way and your spouse will think you are nagging. You must be very tactful.

You may worry about hurting their feelings, or hurting the relationship the two of you have with each other. It is very important to let your spouse know that you love them and that you are trying to help.

It is also important that your spouse knows that you will still love them, even if they don't reach their goal.

It is necessary, in any situation, to have good communication with your spouse. Whether you are trying to motivate them to do something or working on the relationship, you must keep the lines of communication open.

When you can talk to each other about anything, and share your feelings, you will be better equipped to know how to motivate them.

Offering your support and letting your spouse know that you will be there to help is also very important. Let them know that you will do whatever you can to help them succeed.

Offer encouragement without sounding like you are trying to control every situation.

Choose your words wisely and be careful about the way you phrase them. Avoid saying things like, 'You need to' or 'You should'. Try saying something like, 'Maybe we could' or 'What if we try'.

Make it a team effort. No one wants to feel as if they are being controlled or pushed into doing something.

How to Be an Adult in Relationships: The Five Keys to Mindful Loving [Paperback]

Customer Review:
5.0 out of 5 stars "Absolutely Insightful!!!"
By S. L. Hale "Shae" (Midwest)
I originally sought books to help me get over a man in my life that is still IN my life, but not committed to me.

We are the classic "friends with benefits" only he's benefiting more than I am...much more. This book has reinforced in a HUGE way what I already knew but chose to ignore.

It teaches us how change IS scary...even if it's healthy change. It's scary because it's what we become to know and feel comfortable with after awhile. It reaches deep into the psyche and shows why we stay in relationships that aren't so healthy.

It connects us to our childhood, but not in a crutching sort of manner like some readings which "blame" our current choices all on childhood incidences, but rather shows us why we possibly make some of the decisions that we do.

You won't be disappointed in this book. I had to force myself to put it down and sleep. I read it in two days. I underlined SO many sections that applied to me.

This book is a lifetime keeper!!! Get one for you or someone close to you if you feel they need to make some changes in the way they choose relationships in their lives. You (or them) will be happy you did!!!

One warning...It's very truthful. Sometimes when you hear something you dont like, it can have a profound effect. I cried reading this book several times because it talked about my life...my thought processes and my feelings when choosing and staying with a partner.

Why Can't You Read My Mind?

Overcoming the 9 Toxic Thought Patterns that Get in the Way of a Loving Relationship [Paperback]

Customer Review:
5.0 out of 5 stars "This Book Saved My Marriage!"
By A Reader (Washington, DC)

Before we found this book, my husband and I were highly discourgaged and didn't think there were any solutions to repair our miserable relationship.

All I can say is that this book finally stopped us from resenting and blaming each other for the crumbling of our marriage.

I had seen Dr. Bernstein on the Today Show a while ago when they had a segment on toxic relationships and I remembered the title, Why Can't You Read My Mind?

This book helped us to understand and appreciate each other in ways we never have before. I only wish that I had bought it before our relationship got so bad.

My advice is don't wait till the 11th hour to read this outstanding book.

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