How To Make It Extraordinary!

The concept that I’m about to share can be used in every area of your life, whenever it pertains to people. Whether at work or home, with your spouse or child, or even your coworkers, customers and friends – it’s critical that you examine your connection with each person in order for your relationship to flourish!

Try this 3-step exercise:

1. Think of a relationship in your life that you want to become stronger, or extraordinary (ex: Father/Son, Business/Team Members, Husband/Wife/Partner).
2. Take a moment to think about what’s great about the relationship. Write your reasons down. Then think about what is stopping this relationship from being extraordinary. Write that down as well.
3. Examine your findings.

This exercise is meant to have you physically see what is or isn’t working and where the ownership lies. Here’s a secret, you hold no power over any other human being in the world. The only power you hold is the power to change YOU!

So how do we take our relationships to an extraordinary level?

One simple way is to understand that relationships fluctuate from one of two states:  You are either in a state of gratitude or a state of entitlement, there are no other possible states!

Let’s examine the relationship with co-workers at work. Recently, we did a small social experiment at our office. Our team put up a sign in the Clubhouse (aka cafeteria) that read something like this, “please clean your own dishes as the maid doesn’t work here.” Our team cares about the cleanliness of our office, and with this sign they set out clear expectations on how our team members can do their part in looking after it.

But after examining this sign, I asked our team a simple question: Does the sign make you feel motivated to clean your dishes?  I then asked what would happen if you looked at this challenge in different state – one of gratitude! They went off and rewrote the sign to say “Thank you for keeping our Clubhouse Clean.”

A simple switch, but the results completely changed when they wrote the sign from a place of gratitude versus a place of entitlement.  

If we come from a place of gratitude, everything starts to open up in a different light. Being grateful helps people to feel appreciated. Relationships blossom. But when we come from a place of “It should look like this. I want it like this. I don’t care what you think.” then the interaction quickly becomes one of entitlement. Relationships are stifled.

Over the next couple of days try approaching your relationships from a state of gratitude. Show up thankful. I bet you will be pleasantly surprised to see the relationship quickly change to extraordinary!