The Importance of Building Your Tribe

Hi meaningful leader,

I hope you had an amazing weekend! In the US we celebrated Labor Day this Monday so we enjoyed a long and well-needed long weekend.

I’m so stoked you’re here! I have some good stuff to share with you this week and I don’t want you to miss it!

This past week, from Sunday to Wednesday, I participated on my first IMC – International Maxwell Conference. John Maxwell, author of more than 80 leadership books and famous speaker and trainer, has been one of my lifelong mentors, and learning from him in person was a dream come true.

Needless to say, the amount of good information I received is still being processed and sorted out in my brain, but if I have to be honest with you, and I always am, because we’re friends, is that my biggest take away from this event, was the importance of surrounding ourselves with likeminded people.

When we are born, we belong to a specific family, we share traits with. As we start to develop and grow, we make friends; some of which become like family. At work we forge relationships with colleagues and some turn into strong friendships. Yet, not every person close to us belongs to our tribe.

One thing I’ve learned throughout my own journey is that some people want you to be happy and successful until the moment your happiness and success surpasses their own. Some people become envious and resentful because they know where you come from and it may seem unconceivable that you have achieved more than they have.

Not everyone dreams the same dreams. Not everyone works with the same intensity and commitment towards the vision they’ve casted for themselves. As Jesus so wisely stated, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in his hometown.” Meaning, not everyone will appreciate your process, celebrate your successes, cheer you on, believe in who you’ve become, and recognize your growth, only those who truly get you will – and unfortunately the ones closest to us are the ones that normally do it the least –

A tribe is a group of people with which we share an identity. People that have similar aspirations, similar ambitions, similar work ethics. People that are wired very similarly to us.

At the IMC, I met people that have long belong to my tribe but that we, until that moment, hadn’t crossed paths yet. People like Terry who’s a Six Sigma Black Belt, he speaks “continuous improvement” more fluently than English and totally gets why I love Value Stream Maps so much. People like Ana who’s cheering for my book release and volunteered to help me organize the book launching event I didn’t know I have to have. People like Stephanie who shared lunch with me my first day and committed to guide me on my coaching while I guide her on her book. People like Garrett who as we spoke, subscribed to my YouTube channel and has given me great feedback on my content, and whom I can’t wait to see on stage as the motivational speaker he was born to be. People like Tim who immediately connected with me and is cheering for my book launch. And just like that, so many people became part of my tribe and made my crazy dreams feel more achievable and way less crazy.

As human beings we were created for community, so we crave it. However, having the right people around us makes a world of difference. If we take into account the law of averages, meaning that the result of any given situation will be the average of all outcomes, then the famous quote from Jim Rohn “we are the average of the five people we spend the most time with” has lots of veracity in it. And yes, new social networking studies have defined that is not limited to the five people per se, but the idea remains. The people we surround ourselves with, have a huge influence in how we act and in who we become.

There’s a lot of people we interact with, yet we have the sacred right to decide who goes and who doesn’t go into our inner circle. Who brings you positivity, cheers you on, calls on your BS, keeps you accountable, and helps you to grow? That’s your tribe…the people in your corner!

Make sure the people around you are pouring life onto you. Make sure they build you up and make sure you do the same for them. There will be people you love that are just narrow-minded and cannot share your dreams; love them wholeheartedly, but don’t allow them to influence you or disuade you from pursuing your goals. You were created for a purpose and nothing will make you happier than doing what you were created to do.

Life’s too short to live with what if’s. Dream big and chase your dreams like your life depended on it, because it does!

I truly wrote this from my heart…I’m rooting for you! I hope you found value here today, if you did, please share with one person, like and subscribe. I’m currently working on the final editing details of the book and my subscribers will be the first to have the pre-order info, so what are you waiting for?

Have an amazing rest of your week, dream big and God bless,

Maria