Better yet, make friends without thinking about your future needs.
Relationships take time to nurture and to grow. So make the time now to make new friends and continue to grow the friendships that you already have. You’ll never know when you can be of service to someone that you’ve met or when they can be of service to you.
One thing that I do know is that I am way more likely to help someone that I know, like, and trust when that person has spent time developing a mutually beneficial relationship with me.
I’m going to guess that you have friends that you would bend over backwards to help. I’m also going to guess that you have people in your life who only show up or call you when they have a pressing need.
I’m dealing with a person like that right now. She is an acquaintance who could have been a friend, but for several reasons never made it on to the FOZ bus. (That’s Friends of Zita or FOZ) This person has a new book coming out. She wants to speak at one of my events and she wants me to promote her book. And, I haven’t heard from her in 2 and 1/2 years.
Sigh.
So here are some suggestions that I would like to offer to everyone.
If you are writing a book, creating a work of art, undertaking a new project … stay in contact with your friends during the process. You’ll be creating advocates as they stay in touch with you over time. They’ll feel as if the project is partially theirs too. They’ll want to help you succeed for they were part of journey.
Make time for the key people that can have an impact on your success. You do not live in a vacuum and neither do they. Whatever space you hold in someone’s mind is called Top of Mind Awareness. The people who are key to your success should have YOU top of mind. If they don’t, that is your fault – not theirs. No one owes you space in the Top of Mind Awareness lobe. You have to earn it. So be aware of your relationships and keep tending to your TOMA garden.
You’ll be glad you did.