Inner Knowing
Early in my career I would talk with everyone and try to pursue a relationship with every contact that I made. As I’ve now been networking for over 30 years, I can tell when I meet good people. There are a few times when my gut has been wrong, but those are the exceptions. Lately I’ve even been getting chills when I meet someone who I should be staying connected with. I bring this up because I believe most of us know when we meet good people, yet we ignore the signals because we don’t even know we should be looking for them.
I keep coming back to this concept of not looking forward businesses or a certain profession, but looking for people with certain attributes that we are looking for. I’ve always been told that when you ask the universe for something you get what you ask for. I believe the more specific you can be the better! The more I explain to people exactly what I’m looking for those types of people keep showing up in bunches.
I’ve mentioned a few times over the past few months that I’m looking for people that have 4 things in common:
- They are self-aware
- They want to leave the world better than they found it
- They get sh*t done!
- They are total givers, or what I call dolphins
A few weeks ago I received a text from a new friend and it said; Aware, Get Shit Done, World Changing, Dolphin. They not only know what I’m looking for, they’re self identifying as someone that I want to get to know better. I’ve become fast friends with this person and look forward to many more years of doing business together. There is this inner knowing that guides us if we’re willing to listen. When ideals and values align, we know. The hard part is when our inner guidance tells us to stay away yet we see dollar signs and decide to engage anyway.
Our culture is so focused on return, mostly financial. I would suggest that as we redefine success that we look for a different return our our relationships. In the end, if you’re a smart business person the financial return will be there, but not at the cost of our inner knowing. That part of us that just knows the right thing to do, the right people to stay connected to and the right path for us to follow. Many times it might seem scary to leave the old mind-set behind and the comfort of immediate gratification, but we are entering a new age, an age where creativity and inner wisdom will be more highly valued. It’s time to trust your inner voice and let it guide your life.
To a life well lived!
Larry Kesslin 