Developing stronger relationships

Guest Contributor: Yvonne Mahoney
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One of my mastermind group members has a problem disentangling himself from a personal relationship that is strangling his success. We've been using the experience of others in the group, especially those who've dealt with similar situations, to brainstorm ways he can move forward but he is fragile and depressed and can only respond to these with "yes, but..."

But before our meeting is ended, he picks up on a couple of the offered suggestions and says he will try. I hope he does more than try. And the group will be holding him accountable.

This is most certainly not a therapy group although it can be therapeutic. I notice that with each meeting as we get to know each other better, start to build a shared history, we become more trusting and aspects of our lives that are a bit more intimately challenging, we may disclose more readily knowing that all members of the group are committed to helping each other and to our success.

Together we can solve problems, gain insights and added motivation and achieve our goals quicker and more successfully than if we were trying to do it on our own.

We have a long way to go yet. Some people need to listen more and talk less, some to fully commit to attending meetings, some to ensure they both set their goals and keep to them, and all need to keep challenging each other to maintain the spirit and ethos of the mastermind group.

One of the vital essences of building a strong bond with each other though is that we have compatible interests. My group was arbitrarily formed from a course we did together as a group interested in creating greater financial success. Many mastermind groups are formed on the basis accelerating financial success.

However we assumed that meant we had similar visions and that isn't necessarily so. And what we acknowledged from the start was that financial success could not be entirely separated from taking a more holistic approach.

We are still coming to terms with being at different levels of our wealth creation journeys and with different needs. We have to work on that. And that will become more apparent as we work at creating stronger bonds with each other.