Life is a Team Sport

There was a competition for the “Best Man” in a highly successful organisation. All the great and successful were there, to make sure that they put their contribution to the great debate and hopefully win the competition. A wise man called from the top of the cliff – “Your challenge is to meet me at the top of the hill at sunset, but there is a snag to the competition, there is only one way to solve the problem, by making a human chain.” For the problem to be successfully solved, the group would have to work together, and  find other ways of measuring success while satisfying their individual need for self improvement and growth. The group would need to discuss and accept the rules that are built on working as a team to achieve goals.

Learning to work in a team to promote individual and group development is an important part of self development. I have heard the phrase “No man is an island.” But I have never stopped to think of the significance of that to my personal development. As I grow older, as they say “Experience is the best teacher”, I am slowly growing in the appreciation of the gifts that all the people that I meet each day of the week, contribute to my life. Do you know the added bonus to this lavishly enriching attitude to life? It is the fact that the contributions do not necessarily have to be pleasant. For example if a colleague takes a personal dislike to your ways of working; this is likely to cause you huge discomfort but you have a lot to learn from the experience. Be open to the opportunities for growth and change.

Let me allow you a brief visit to my experience and the way others have contributed to my development. I know that the desire to write has been part of my vision for a very long time but I did not know how to go about it until I met a very special friend. She proved invaluable to sparking my creativity and opening the doors that would allow me to blog on the internet. She built a blog spot for me and shared her experience with me through her unique coaching style. This was the breakthrough that I had been waiting for; I finally found the key. Note, the key was delivered through a friend. The fact is this; you can never tell who will be carrying the key to the next most important event in your life so it is worth cultivating each relationship with sensitivity. If you do discover that any relationship is not giving you the benefit that you envisage, it might be time to cut the ties and move on to new ones. Time is very precious and the forming of a network of relationships that promote self development is a priority.

You might be thinking- how do you forge such great relationships? It is important that it begins with caring for yourself. The people that will be drawn to you, are those who like what they see in your life. It seems, individuals are usually guided by their drives to form relationships that would benefit them. Are you the sort of person, that the person that you wish to find, would want to spend time with? If you are not, I think it is time for you to begin to be one. Spend time on developing that attractive inexpensive attitude to life and they would prove invaluable in the future.

Secondly, when you do meet with the person, who you think has something to contribute to your development, choose to spend some time with them. It is the wise thing to do. Relationships take time to forge. Indeed the process passes through a lot of hurdles. There is the initial euphoria of finding a new friend; then there is the testing time- a time to prove if the other person is worth the expenditure in time and energy and finally there is the beginning of a commitment to growth and personal enrichment. When these hurdles have been successfully navigated, then the work begins.

This blog was inspired by a stranger who has been following my blog for a while and then noticed that I had not blogged for a while. The feeling that someone appreciates the thoughts that I had shared in my blog,  inspired me to sit at the computer to write about this theme.

Enjoy your journey in self development.