The Power of the Other

Crucial Connection

Phrases like “Change your thinking, change your life!” or “Find the ‘power within’” misleadingly suggest that personal growth occurs in isolation from relationships. To the contrary, your overall well-being depends on your connections with other people. The family, friends, colleagues and mentors who surround you can reinforce your path to success or undermine it.

Three factors – physical well-being, relationships and mind-set – work together to produce high-level performance. Your ability to make the best choices depends on your physical brain working at peak capacity and not reacting to chemical imbalances. Your mind provides the “software” that regulates your choices. You can make positive decisions or self-defeating ones based in part on the feedback that you receive from your family and your upbringing and the reactions you cultivate through friendships and mentors. Good relationships encourage you; bad ones demean or distract you and deplete the energy you need to become a great leader. Good relationships improve your mental software, enabling you to make more finely attuned choices.

The “Four Corners” of Connection

Too often, ...