Continuing on with yesterday’s thought about developing relationships where we can just tell each other the truth without having to beat around the bush, I want to share with you some more specific thoughts on building these types of relationships.

An “Alliance” is defined as –

• A close association…formed to advance common interests or causes.
• A relationship in which people agree to work together.

I know the term “Alliance” is typically used in geo-political terms, but consider the advantages of seeing it as something you can build into your everyday life. How can you connect with a few other people to work together to advance a common interest. In this case, your “common interest” is creating a safe place to be yourself and to have others help you become the person you really want to be.

What we need is people who truly care about us to help us see our blind-spots and, even more importantly, call out the greatness that’s already within us as those created in the very image of God.

Today’s Good News is most people want to help others succeed, and my guess is you’re one of those people.
How can we create a healthy Alliance?

Keep it small. It takes a lot of time to invest deeply into others. You want it large enough to provide multiple support perspectives, but small enough to allow you to truly “be invested” in each of them. Certainly, you can maintain a fairly large number of acquaintances, but this Alliance is going to intentionally go much deeper than your normal relationships.

A group of 3-5 people is a good start. Choose people who will lift you up and challenge you. And, remember, this is mutually beneficial, so you have to be willing to do the same for them.

Know your “Why?” Be clear from the start about what you’re looking for from them and what you are offering to do for them. You may want to show them this post as a way of explaining what this is all about.

Learn everyone’s Story. Dedicate time up front to listen to each other’s Story – this may start with one person sharing their story and everyone getting to know them for an entire gathering time. Take as many gatherings as necessary for everyone to have “their day”.

Do Goal Setting (or even better Habit Forming) together and be an Ally for each other to see these life changes take root. In other words, develop your plans together, share them with each other, and the cheer each other on towards making these habits stick.

Start with an Alliance for your personal life, but as that becomes a routine part of your life consider forming an Alliance for your work life, too. This will be like creating a “Dream Team” for your professional life.

You could also create an Alliance around mission work – or any other area of life where having a committed team would be beneficial.

So maybe what I’ve described isn’t exactly what you want to do, but I hope at a minimum, this will get you thinking about how you can connect with a few other people in real and meaningful ways.

Surrounding yourself with people you can be real with is a game-changer. You can do it – and that’s Good News!

 

#EverydayGospel

 

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