Brian Tracy argues that 85% of your happiness comes from other people. He recommends the Golden Rule, spending time with people who matter, and using empathy exercises like imagining someone's final days to strengthen relationships and boost everyone's self-esteem.
85%
October 30, 2014
Let's talk now about how you can cultivate great relationships. First, make an effort to be happy and cultivate great relationships all the days of your life. This is perhaps more important than anything else in life. And I'm going to tell you why. Living a good life full of great relationships is more important than anything else. 85% of your happiness and joy in life will be associated with other people. This means that, of course, 85% of your frustrations and problems in life will be associated with other people as well. In order to be happy in life, you must focus on building great relationships with as many people as possible. Now, an important part of living a wonderful life is for you to remember that relationships are central to your health and happiness. Practice the Golden Rule in all of your relationships. Make the important people in your life the most important parts of your world. Treat other people with courtesy and kindness and consideration exactly the way you would like to be treated by them. When you practice the Golden Rule, it will not only help you to be happy by being good to others, it will help others to be happy as well. The critical factor in every relationship is the variable of time. The more time you invest to be happy in a relationship, the more important that relationship becomes to both of you. Be sure to spend lots of time with the people who are the most important to you in life. The more time you spend with the people you care about, the happier, healthier and more fulfilled you will be as a person in your relationships with other people. Here's a special technique you can use, especially when you feel impatient or angry for any reason. Imagine that the other person only has a short time to live and you are the only one who knows about it. What would you do differently? Treat every person as if they were carrying a heavy load. Treat each person as though they have a lot of problems and difficulties. Be compassionate and friendly even when you don't feel like it. Continually look for other ways to make people feel important. Look for ways to express appreciation and admiration. Look for ways to give them approval and praise. Look for ways to acknowledge the special qualities they have and the efforts that they're making. Go out of your way to bring a little sunshine into the life of another person you meet. You see you are designed emotionally in a remarkable way. Whenever you do or say anything that makes another person feel better about himself or herself, you automatically feel better about yourself as well. Each time you raise the self esteem of another person, your own self esteem goes up. Whenever you make other people feel important, you feel more important as well. Live your life as though you only had six months to live. Be with the people you care about the most. Do the things that you really want to do. Cultivate great relationships with the people you love. Practice the Golden Rule with everyone you come into contact with. And most importantly, be happy and live a good life that people will remember you for. Thank you for watching my video. Make sure to subscribe and tell a friend about it. For exclusive content on sales, training, leadership, business, and personal success, Visit me@briantracy.com and while you're there, sign up for my newsletter. Until next time, do the things today that will lead to the life that you want to live tomorrow.
