Relationships in Whole Person Development

Leadership

Oct 5

Whole person development focuses on awareness to bring about change. As entrepreneurs and executives, you know how focused change can lead to more success. However, awareness is not a quality limited to our selves. Our connection to others – the relationships we form with those around us and the way we give back to our community – is just as important.

These connections contribute to our success by establishing the communication that builds stronger relationships. This fosters our ability to persuade and engage, form romantic partnerships, and have fulfilling conversations with those around us.

Bloom’s Whole Person Development Method teaches us to progress from a seed to a flower, from our Current to our Desired Self. This process of blooming is not a lonely one: it requires a connection with the community around us through our relationships. That community, in turn, will bloom as well.

Family Relationships

Family represents the relationship at the core of social awareness in Whole Person Development. As business owners or workers, we know that our personality changes to match our environment. Being aware of how to match our behavior to the situation is an essential aspect of achieving feelings of belonging and connectedness. Our families experience these changes more keenly than our other contacts.

Without learning how to break our work habits and adapt communication to our relationship with family (or vice versa), we begin to experience lapses in our connection to those around us. We lose our self-worth when our relationship with family falters, according to a study published in Innovation in Aging by the Oxford University Press. This affects us both personally and professionally.

Family is not a distraction in Whole Person Development’s journey from the Current to the Desired Self – it is a motivator.

Partner Relationships

A strong relationship with our partner involves learning not only how to be supportive, but also how to have hard conversations. Not every aspect of our romantic lives can be cheery, but they can all be meaningful. Working through a difficult conversation, acknowledging our partner’s feelings, and learning to practice forgiveness are major parts of building connectedness.

We can only find fulfillment and reach our Desired Self if we can adapt our communication to connect both at work and at home. Building connections around partnership, children, and romance are more fulfilling and create self-worth as a result. They are foundations of change in Whole Person Development.

Social Relationships

Adapting to social environments is an essential skill for those pursuing Whole Person Development, though it can be elusive. It requires breaking habits and building new ones. Belonging to a social group is important, even if it’s only as a part of work and learning to give back to that group and become connected encourages feelings of fulfillment across spheres of influence. It spreads from our social environment to our family environment and back to our selves.

Connectedness is not an easy achievement, but it’s an integral component of the Desired Self in Whole Person Development.

The Takeaway

Relationships are foundations for change in Whole Person Development. They help us identify gaps in our awareness and empathy, allowing us to adopt an outlook that focuses on building stronger relationships while defining that strength for us. Engaging in hard conversations or learning to say “no” to your peers or partner may seem like negative experiences, but they are actually opportunities for awareness in Whole Person Development.

They signal a shift towards a focus on connectedness, at home and work. The ability to engage with those around us in a way that includes situations of difficult honesty leads to stronger relationships based on opportunities for forgiveness and progress. This is a secret to fulfillment in Whole Person Development and hinges on our commitment to building stronger relationships.