By Terry L. Brock
Relationship Marketing is about helping others achieve their goals. One of the best ways to build your own business is to focus on the needs of others. The most important way you can help others is to help them achieve their goals and their own bucket list. What do I mean by a bucket list? Read on.
I was impressed recently with the video of Steve Jobs at his famous Commencement Address to Stanford University in 2005. You can see it on YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1R-jKKp3NA. In that profound speech he encouraged the graduates to find what you love.
This makes all the sense in the world and it particularly relates to business and Relationship Marketing. You have to find the thing that you love in life and in business. If you don’t love what you’re doing, if it doesn’t make you excited to face a new day when you get up for several days in a row, change it. Move forward. Sure, we can’t all just stop what we’re doing immediately and quit. That would be irresponsible in most cases.
However, if you really don’t like what you’re doing, figure out a way to do what you really want to do where you can make a living. This is vital to live life fully.
As I speak for companies around the world, I see far too many people who are working at jobs they don’t like. Henry David Thoreau told us that most people live lives of quiet desperation. This is so sad. However, it doesn’t have to be that way for you. But, it will take decisive action on your part. You don’t achieve the life of your dreams by merely dreaming. You’ve got to put action into making dreams reality.
Hard economic times are wonderful for facilitating this. Hey, you’ve got a really good excuse in that the old job just wasn’t giving you what you wanted! Now you can begin again. You’ll have the freshness of a new beginning. You don’t have the heavy feeling of previous commitments and all the shoulds that are clouding your life. Instead, you embrace the lightness of new possibilities, new opportunities and adventure. Yes, be responsible and fulfill your commitments to others. But never stop focusing on how you can creatively live your life to the fullest, make the most of what is best for you and live your life to the fullest.
All the money-making, working for a living, doing a job and all that stuff pales in comparison to you living your life in your way by your own terms. This is what true freedom and liberty is all about. Check out Tim Ferriss ground-breaking book, The 4-Hour Workweek for brilliant insights into making this reality for you.
What is it that you really want to do with your life? What is on your bucket list of things to do in life? I recently saw the movie with Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson called Bucket List. It is the story about two terminally ill patients who decide to live life and fulfill the things in life they want to before they kick the bucket hence the bucket list. Get this movie sometime and have a most enjoyable and insightful evening.
Why wait till you are about to die or physically can’t do what you want? Make it happen now. Remember, you have to be responsible, particularly when other people are depending on you. So, carefully make your plans. Think. Here’s an idea turn off that infernal TV for an evening and spend some time with pen and paper looking out at a lovely scene. Feverishly and even foolishly take notes on everything that comes to mind (have a lot of paper handy for this delicious exercise!).
Once you’ve got your own bucket list, put plans in place to fulfill them. What are the things you can do right now? What will take time? Which items are going to take more financial resources? Plan it. Hey, what could be more important in your life than doing the things that you want to do in your life???
And here’s an even bigger thrill: Help others achieve their own bucket list goals. I find that the older I get the more juice I get from helping significant people be ecstatically jubilant about attaining their goals. Help someone achieve their own goals and you’ll be amazed at the juice you get from that.
This is not only Relationship Marketing. It is Relationship Living. It is one of the strange ironies of life that we get more for ourselves as we help others get what they need. That is the beauty of a free market system. Voluntary exchange, which benefits both parties, is at the core of Relationship Marketing.
So, what’s holding you back? Blast through those barriers and make it happen. This is your life. Time’s a wasting as they say. Get on with it and start now.
I look forward to hearing from you and learning about your progress. Drop me an email at Terry@TerryBrock.com and let me know how you’re helping others to fulfill their own bucket list items. How has that helped you in your own Relationship Marketing? How has it helped you in business and in life?
What are you waiting for? Begin your adventure now.
Terry Brock is an international marketing coach and columnist who helps businesses market more effectively, leveraging technology. He shows busy professionals how to squeeze more out of their days using time-honored rules and practical technology tools. He can be reached at 407-363-0505, by e-mail at terry@terrybrock.com or through his website at www.terrybrock.com.
