If You Want to Succeed, Build Strong Relationships in Your Personal Life and Your Business Life

Building strong relationships in one’s personal life and business life are an important key to success in life. God did not create us to be alone or live a lonely existence. God created us to have strong and wonderful relationships with our fellow men and women. God created Adam, then He created Eve, from Adam’s rib, to be his helpmate in life. No matter your marital status in life: single, married, divorced, or widowed, God created you to have fellowship with your fellow man or woman. Life is too short to not enjoy the company and companionship of others.

Ecc. 9:4 “For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope.” Ecc. 9:9 “Live joyfully with the wife whom thou loves all the days of the life of thy vanity.” The Bible has many other verses in it that emphasis the importance of having close relationships with each other. Marriage is the most awesome relationship you can have with another human being, but not everyone is married. Not everyone is meant to be married and no one should stay in a marriage that is not healthy for them or the other person. Two main causes of divorce are financial stress and pornography. When we fail to treat one another tenderly, graciously, lovingly, considerably, and with respect, the plane we’re flying in together takes a nose drive. A neglected spouse or significant other is vulnerable to anyone that comes along. One should be happy with what they have at home because the grass is not always greener on the other side. The “80/20 Rule” means you love the 80% your partner has to offer you, and the 20% you do not like about your mate should not matter. Believe me I am sure your mate has some things that they do not like about you. If God’s Word doesn’t work in your home and your marriage, then it won’t work anywhere else. An “instrument-rated Christian” understands the secret of having a good marriage is not just in finding the right person-but in becoming the right person. It can only happen when you make the daily commitment to living by the principles of God’s Word and demonstrating the fruits of the Spirit. For a happy and successful marriage, start tending to the home fires.

In your business relationships, it is extremely important to build trust and confidence in your business partner, and to feel a level of trust and confidence in your business partner, as well. Some business relationships will only last for a short while and others will last a lifetime. To have a successful business relationship with someone else you must provide the individual with a sense of need and confidence. In business relationships, you want to bring out the “greatness” in each person and condition them for greatness. No business relationship should just be built on what can I get out of the person or what can they get out of me. It should be a mutual understanding that each partner shall bring out the best in each other. We will make each other feel wanted, needed, appreciated, and a star in our own right. In business relationships, each individual should be willing to empower each other and build each other up. Also, business relationships should help each other with figuring out what drives us and how that drive can be beneficial to our success in life.

I learned in a workshop given by Dave Elliott at the “Success in the City Expo” on 03/10/14 the following acronym “SERV-UP” in building successful relationships on a personal and business level.

S= service/contribution to others;

E=expansion/growth (happiness is about progress);

R=relationships (you need love and connection to others)

V=value or significance (must know your personal value and self-worth)

U=unpredictability (you need variety in your relationships to keep them strong)

P=predictability (you need consistency in your relationships to keep them strong)

Our personal relationships and business relationships will only be as successful as they can be based on how we work at them, how we treat the other individual in the relationship, and how much we value those relationships.

Donya Zimmerman is a business consultant, mediator, and legal professional with over ten years of experience. She is owner of Family & Community Mediation and Business Consulting based in Baltimore, Maryland and has been in business since 2013. Contact information: dzimmerman36@gmail.com, www.facebook.com/FACMBC, https://twitter.com/FACMBC and https://dzimmerman36.wordpress.com.

HOLY GRAIL

Good article.

FÒREORDAINED

Don’t hail me when I am gone

I am the Holy Grail you can’t see

You will know when am gone      

It would have been too late then

Why do we always have to wait till it’s over before we recognize how blessed we were to have certain people in our lives, as God’s precious gift? One of the problems with our culture is that we are so quick to judge and condemn people; which sadly blind us from seeing the good in others. I have read a lot about people who made an indelible mark in their own generation, but were never appreciated, honored or respected by their own people, and died in isolation; later to be hailed as great saints or achievers.

He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. (John 1:11 NIV)
He came to his own people, and even…

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If You Want to Succeed, Get Your Finances in Order

One thing I have learned as an individual is that you determine your own future and your own success. One key area that many individuals are not successful in are their personal finances. America is a nation that is based on credit, debt, wealth, and money. At a young age, we are taught, money and wealth is the root of success and happiness. But, in reality money and wealth can be the “root of all evil” depending on the circumstances. I strongly believe that happiness brings success and not vice versa. I believe that money should be used to meet one’s needs and not one’s excesses. One must learn how to use their money wisely and not foolishly. Every day in the news you hear about millionaires going bankrupt and losing all their money. Also, many individuals must learn how to budget their money and manage their finances. One should always make a habit of balancing their financial books and checkbook. The most financial secure individuals’ secret is that they know how to balance their checkbook and keep a regular check of their income and their expenses. I strongly believe that every child and every adult should take a course in Basic Accounting and Finances 101.

I recommend this amazing book entitled “You Don’t Have to Be Rich: Comfort, Happiness, And Financial Security on Your Own Terms” by Jean Chatzky (Jean Chatzky, 2003). This book teaches you how to have control over your finances and not allow your finances to control you. You must get a grip on your finances, in order to, have financial happiness. “Get a grip on your financial happiness—and therefore your overall happiness—and you’re also likely to be the recipient of a little chicken-and-egg reward. Over the course of their lives, people who are financially happy are more likely to be more successful financially. That’s right. You don’t have to be rich. But you may end up richer anyway, in more ways than one.” Page 29 of You Don’t Have to Be Rich. People who tend to spend money on materialistic things normally “over want” things and tend to believe that money equals happiness. Materialism means that you place higher value on material possessions and income than you do on personal relationships, your free time, and your health. Basically, materialism means you value money and wealth over everything else.

You have to have some control over your finances in order to have true happiness in your life. “The more control you have over your finances—no matter how much you earn, no matter how much you’ve saved—the less money stresses you out. And less stress translates, across the board, into more happiness”. Page 60 of You Don’t Have to Be Rich. Important lessons you must learn about personal finances is that you must be reasonable and sensible on how your spend your money, you must budget your money, you must be willing to share your wealth with those in need, you must be a good steward with your money, and must give God his fair share by way of tithes (give 10% of your earnings to God).

Donya Zimmerman is a business consultant, mediator, and legal professional with over ten years of experience. She is owner of Family & Community Mediation and Business Consulting based in Baltimore, Maryland and has been in business since 2013. Contact information: dzimmerman36@gmail.com, www.facebook.com/FACMBC, https://twitter.com/FACMBC and https://dzimmerman36.wordpress.com.

 

 

 

 

If You Want to Succeed, Learn Patience

Patience is Virtue. Habakkuk 2:3 “For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.” Are you waiting for your vision to start coming to pass? You’re not the first person to struggle with the idea of waiting and you won’t be the last. When you get what you’re waiting for now, you’ll begin waiting for something else. The Christian living is defined by one word—waiting. What should you do while you’re waiting? Pour yourself into the job at hand; otherwise you’ll shortchange your future. James 5:8 “You too, be patient and stand firm.” What God has in store for you is worth any price you have to pay and any season of waiting you have to go through.

Before you quit and give up in discouragement consider the long and difficult process by which a butterfly emerges from it cocoon. If you try to rush God’s purpose and process in your life, you’ll produce something deformed—something that can’t get off the ground and fly. Job 14:14 “I will wait, till my change comes.” So hold on, your change is coming. God won’t give up on you, so don’t give up on Him! Something is dying that has to die, so that something better can be brought to life.

 

Donya Zimmerman is a business consultant, mediator, and legal professional with over ten years of experience. She is owner of Family & Community Mediation and Business Consulting based in Baltimore, Maryland and has been in business since 2013. Contact information: dzimmerman36@gmail.com, www.facebook.com/FACMBC, https://twitter.com/FACMBC and https://dzimmerman36.wordpress.com.

If You Want to Succeed, Stop Comparing Yourself to Others

One major problem many people have is that we love to compare ourselves to others. 2 Cor. 10:12 “For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves; but they who are measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves are not wise.” Gal. 5:25 “We will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse, we have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us are an original.” No matter what, you have a gift from God that no one else has. Also, you have skills and talents no one else has. God has given us special gifts, which no one else has, to share with each other. Are you so busy analyzing your vices that you don’t have time to appreciate your virtues? Or so caught up in scrutinizing others that you don’t value what God has given you? By making comparisons, you are implying that God made a mistake when He created you. By comparing yourself to others, you are allowing others to define your worth and giving them control over your self-esteem. You should always know your self-worth and build on your God-given talents and stop coveting what others have. Until you stop comparing yourself to others, you’ll never be able to give birth to the gifts God has placed within you. Thank God for making you unique, special, and believe that He’s transforming you day by day into the person He wants you to become. Love who you are and stop comparing yourself to someone else because you have something special they do not have.

 

Donya Zimmerman is a business consultant, mediator, and legal professional with over ten years of experience. She is owner of Family & Community Mediation and Business Consulting based in Baltimore, Maryland and has been in business since 2013. Contact information: dzimmerman36@gmail.com, www.facebook.com/FACMBC, https://twitter.com/FACMBC and https://dzimmerman36.wordpress.com.