How to Have Successful Relationships as a Young Professional

As a young professional, you deal with many different types of relationships.  You have relationships with your faith, your family, your friends, significant others, co-workers and mentors.  Rather than focusing on any of them specifically, we are going to look at the characteristics you need to be successful in every relationship that you have.  Also understand that relationships have a huge impact on the person that you are and the people that you will become.  Part of having a well balanced lifestyle is your ability to have quality relationships.  This article details the five things that are critical in building and maintaining great relationships.

Be Loyal and Dependable

Always be loyal to those in your life who have taken the time to help you become a better person.  You have had people in your life that have gone out of their ways to teach you, mentor you, give you gifts, support you and have been there for you during difficult times.  Remember those acts of kindness, return those favors and be loyal to those people.  Also be dependable.  Be the person who your friends know they can go to during a difficult time.  When you tell someone that you are going to do something, always follow through on that promise and make sure your word is as good as gold.

Be Respectful

Have respect for each and every person that you encounter in life.  Respect successful business owners for their leadership and entrepreneurial skills.  Respect volunteers in the community for their selflessness and ability to take time out of their lives to help others.  Treat everyone in your life with a great deal of respect, whether it is your boss or the person taking your order at the drive-thru window.  Be respectful of everyone, whether there is a crowd of people around or nobody is looking.  Be the one person who asks the check out lady at the grocery store how her day is going during her 8-hour shift.  These little acts of respect to everyone around you add up over time and help you become a person who others will respect.

Positive People Only

Unfortunately you do not get to pick and choose every single person with whom you interact with daily.  You do, however, choose the people with which you will spend the most amount of time.  Make sure that your best relationships are with people who have a positive attitude and outlook on life.  Also make sure that these positive people you surround yourself with will have a positive impact on your life and help you become the person that you want to become.

Ask yourself if the people in your life will be able to help you in your journey towards success.  Also determine if these people align with your vision of success.  If they do, continue to build relationships with them.  If they don’t, then you must determine if an adjustment can be made in your relationship with them, or if they no longer should be a large part of your life.  Remember that your relationships with family, friends, mentors, co-workers and others are a large part of who you are.  You are reading this because you want to be successful – make sure that the people in your life are going to positively impact your journey towards success.

Communicate Constantly

Make sure that you are in constant communication with everyone in your life.  This refers to both frequency and openness of communication.  Frequency is important; don’t let time slip by in between calls to loved ones, friends and mentors.  Stay in constant communication with them because life is too short to let time slip by.  With current technology, there is no excuse for not communicating on a regular basis with the important people in your life.  Send a text message, make a phone call on your way home from the office, shoot over an email or put up a wall post on Facebook.  Any of these are better than going weeks or months without talking to the important people in your life.

The other important part of communicating is having open and honest dialogue with everyone in your life.  Being honest about your feelings will make you feel better and lead to less confusion or arguments over time.  Tell people how you feel, what your goals and dreams are and what will make you happy in life.  Know how they feel, know what their goals and dreams are and understand their perspectives on things.  Have conversations and be completely honest with everyone in your life, and you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how much easier and more enjoyable your life can become.

Learn From Every Relationship

Relationships can take on all sorts of shapes, sizes and colors.  Some are great, others are not.  Some will continue on forever, others will end badly.  In those great relationships that will go on forever, make sure to learn why they are so great.  Understand what makes you happy, why they are so valuable and figure out how you can have more just like them.  When bad relationships come to an end, do not view them as failures.  Be fortunate that you had the relationship regardless of how badly it ended, and take from it lessons that you can carry with you.  Learn why the relationship didn’t work and let it make you a better person who has a clearer idea of what types of relationships will make you happy.  Whether a relationship is great, terrible, wonderful or awful, learn from it and let it grow you into a better person.

A Final Word

Relationships have a huge impact on every aspect of your life.  The biggest question to ask yourself in any relationship you have is whether or not it is helping you achieve your vision of success or hurting your progress towards your goals and dreams.  Make sure that you surround yourself with people who will positively impact your life, make you a better person and support you as you work towards everything you want to accomplish in life.