Spring Clean your Relationships to Reboot Your Life

[Krissy]

Achieving your dreams will often mean rebooting your rollodex. Look around you, are there habits or opinions that till now have kept you firmly stuck in the position you currently find yourself in?

The saying Birds of a feather flock together is very true. Look at the people you spend time with, are they also in the same situation? Are they keeping you stuck because they are afraid they will loose you if you change?

Chances are their fears are founded, would they really fit in with the environment and people you would need to have around you in order to live the life you really want to lead?

Rebooting demands that you do a little spring cleaning

Before we start with anything new it is a good idea to evaluate what we already have and there is nothing like a good spring to bring us clarity around this.

When we spring clean our homes we divide our things into one of the following five categories.

• There's the rubbish that must go out immediately.
• There is material to be recycled.
• There are possessions that you know you should get rid of, but you are too attached to let them go. So you give yourself some distance by putting them in bags in your cellar or attic. If you haven't missed them by the following spring , they're discarded.
• Then there are those neglected objects that just need a little TLC to bring back the sparkle.
• And finally, there are the treasures that are dusted off and put back in pride of place.

It's a good idea to spring clean our relationships occasionally too, and for this task I use exactly the same criteria.

First let's consider the relationship rubbish: the ones that are really toxic. Take a couple of moments to change your perspective about your difficult relationship. Imagine how your moving on will work for everyone involved.

If there are some things you are afraid of - maybe now would be the time to seek help if someone is threatening you, or even if you are feeling uncomfortable about expres sing yourself you may need professional help to free yourself and achieve the life you deserve.

Now the recyclables. Remember you may no longer have a good connection with these people, but someone else will really love them. The sooner you let go, the sooner you can both move on with your lives.

The relationships you need to distance yourself from. They say they're your friend but in reality they do nothing but put you down. It’s time to stop answering the phone. She'll/he'll soon find some other poor soul to boost their ego for them.

It's time to think about where you could meet people who value you.

The neglected relationships: Who do you need to phone to say I love you? Have you been too busy lately to spend time with the people who really matter? Take some time to show them you really care. These are the things you wish you'd done when it's too late.

Make a list, and then make the calls!

Finally those that need dusting off and put back in pride of place: These are the relationships that make you happy, make an extra effort to nourish these relationships this year.

Once you have worked your way through this spring cleaning list and deleted the people who have become outdated and rebooted the great relationships you have, you will be ready to search some new relationships which will compliment you now and in the future.

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Krissy Jackson is the founder of Laughing Kiwi Enterprises. She is a professional Personal and small business coach, speaker, and author. Her work with an international base of clientele is concentrated around the areas of personal and small business development.

Visit her webste at http://www.laughingkiwi.com

All Content © 2006, Krissy Jackson | www.krissyjackson.com | All rights reserved

[Chuck Dennis]

Krissy - Interesting metaphor for relationship maintenance. My wife has a similar philosphy, which she calls her Top 50. She prioritizes the top 50 business relationships, and makes sure to contact each of them at least once every three months. She sets up reminders in her Outlook, so that she does not neglect any of these folks. And lo and behold, she has an amazingly successful business!

[Sunny Cervantes]

I send out greetings at least once every 3 months to my business list. I try to make sure that each greeting is personalized and it's not a copy and paste job. But it can be a challenge. Sometimes, I look at my contact list and think "Oh God! And I'm only letter B!" *lol*