For the sake of our own human potential, the quality of our relationships needs to be addressed.

Are you consciously choosing your relationships?

In a world full of networking opportunities and evermore-present social networks, human relationships are becoming commoditized, in the sense that we often do not give them the importance that they should have, we do not nourish them properly and we do not give them time to develop organically.

Everyday we are bombarded by pressure to meet up, socialize, get new acquaintances – be social!

And so we establish networks, often without properly assessing the quality of the relationships being formed, with the effect of growing unattended gardens.

There is a powerful secret reason why, throughout history, relationships were established with utmost care and kept with diligence, and we seem to be forgetting all about it.

The most powerful secret about relationships is that the company we keep directly influences the type of person we become.

Think about this for a second and let it sink in – even tough it is not an imminent case of life and death (at least in most cases), the fact is that your human development potential, your achievement level, your happiness and the overall quality of your experience in this precious and incredibly short life largely depends on who you associate with.

Making the right relationship choices can make your life incredibly rewarding, but making the wrong ones can make your life miserable.

In all fairness, everyone gets it when we simply say that minimum compatibility is necessary for relationships to function.

Are you satisfied with “minimums”?

It does not come as a surprise then that the people you work with have an enormous impact on your work ethic and your perception of value creation. Team up with the wrong guys and you are curtailing your personal development and creating for yourself an inferior potential.

Here is a mid-blowing fact that we often forget: well-founded, solid relationships transform into partnerships and can have many times much more power than each of the individuals participating in them.

All of this is to say that the most important choices we make in life are the ones where we determine which persons we become closest to: partners, friends, spouse, because from the moment we establish these relationships, our destinies become combined.

So what can we do about it?

If you start today with these 5 simple steps and walk the walk, over time things will evolve in ways you never dreamt of:

1.     Consciously choose who your key relationships are. Invest in the ones who bring you higher, and cut off the relationships that prey on your energy.

2.     Keep an open heart – do not judge, instead let life flow and be open to surprises.

3.     Simply refuse to even consider a job offer based on salary or brand – instead make sure you meet with the people and sense the vibe before taking any decisions.

4.     Tell the word who you are, not what you do.

5.     Demand better treatment from recruiters. Explain to executive recruiters who see you as a “function” that your ultimate potential will depend on the quality of the people in your environment, not on what you have done before, and that you will not be doing the same thing all your life.

Above all love yourself, and commit to relationships which will assist you in achieving your ultimate human potential.