Assembling Your Support Team
Many factors can be attributed to why one person succeeds and another person fails. The emphasis on failure is not to be suggested as a negative viewpoint in this statement.
The suggestion I am referring to is the many important aspects that comprise themselves within the complexity of success.
One of these aspects is the support team you surround yourself with during your various goal and accomplishment pursuits.
Why is it crucial to have a support team surrounding you?
Various reasons may include;
- motivating presence to help in times of need
- ability to assist in regimented accountability
- access to assistance or guidance when needed
- reaffirming you are not alone in your journey
- awareness of your goal or accomplishment and help to keep you on track
- utilize their past and personal experiences and knowledge (learning from failures and successes)
- gain valuable insight from feedback or expertise. Harvesting their honesty.
- shared enthusiasm to help celebrate your victories
It is important to narrow down your support team and know who they are, what capacity they would like to support you. The reasons above may help in identifying what ways they can support you.
Finding your support team
Obvious places to start looking for your support team include;
- family
- friends
- co-workers/colleagues
- support groups- specific in the area of goal or accomplishment interest
The people you surround yourself with in your support team should be a positive influence in your life with a presence that can be built upon or used to re-frame your objectives.
Stay clear of negativity or supporters that detract you from moving forward and growing in your journey.
My Personal Support Team example
I am currently developing my writing skills, crafting the art of writing and creation. My goal is to publish my works.
- The first step I decided to take was to determine what things might be required to reach my goal.
- I then identified if there are others I know that may be able to assist in these required areas.
- There are areas that I lack the sufficient support required and now will need to address those deficiencies in support. These areas are writing resources, business and creativity.
- I have identified the following teams in my support group: accountability, motivation/inspiration, creativity, business, honest feedback, writing resources, specialized.
- The teams can also be separated into further divisions for quicker reference: Business- publishing, advertising, marketing, sales. Writing Resources- learning, authors, writing groups/associations/clubs.
- Continue making connections.
- Being organized and knowing; what kind of support is available from each person, where the people that form these support teams are. This will be crucial information to have readily accessible for contacting in times of need.
Negative Supporters
How would a negative supporter contribute to the success of our journey? They don’t. Simply knowing who they are and how they detract from what we are working towards helps to avoid future discouragement.
Ways in which a negative supporter may begin to obstruct our progress;
- negativity- discredit your ideas and thoughts
- judgemental- disapproval, overcritical, thoughts and actions not worthy
- envious- not happy for you, make you feel guilty
- arrogant- intimidate, annoy
- victims- excuses, blame, point finger
- liars- people you can’t trust
- gossipers- create or pass along false/personal information- leads to destructive relationships and enemies
This exercise may take some time and effort to build the list of supporters. Knowing who they are and how they can help will ensure you are giving yourself opportunities to keep moving forward. This will lead to creating momentum and introduce doorways to opportunities.
Sometimes the belief in ourselves may falter at the most inopportune times. The support you have will help to reaffirm this belief while you regain your balance and move forward.
“The foundation of support we build, reduces the thoughts of failure and strengthens our trust that we will succeed.” – Kristin Larsen