What’s your relationship investment strategy?
Many of us have a financial investment strategy:
— Perhaps you are living paycheck to paycheck, using credit cards to cover gaps, with the belief that your next job/raise will close the gap.
— Perhaps you have taken out debt in the form of a mortgage or business loan to invest in your house or business.
— Perhaps you are a steady saver, who puts away money each month before spending, and depends on compound interest for long-term gains.
Very few people think about such investment strategies for their relationships. And yet there are relational equivalents to the above options:
— Credit card: Living moment to moment, sacrificing family and friend time to try to get everything done, and hoping it will work out in the future.
— Debt: Thoughtfully investing in your job/career for a bigger payoff later that will enable greater ease for your relationships and family.
— Saver: Investing in your relationships, family and friends first, building the foundation of connection that will support you throughout life, whatever comes.
I like Clayton Christensen’s powerful anecdote in his HBR article “How Will You Measure Your Life?”:
“Over the years I’ve watched the fates of my HBS classmates from 1979 unfold; I’ve seen more and more of them come to reunions unhappy, divorced, and alienated from their children. I can guarantee you that not a single one of them graduated with the deliberate strategy of getting divorced and raising children who would become estranged from them. And yet a shocking number of them implemented that strategy. The reason? They didn’t keep the purpose of their lives front and center as they decided how to spend their time, talents, and energy.”
So what’s your people strategy? With whom will you invest your time? With whom will you take on debt, or abandon? And how will you implement that conscious strategy rather than put all of your attention on your career?
#relationships #career #strategy #youhaveachoice