Socialize deliberately
By Jean Ricot Dormeus
In his book, “Business principles from the Bible”, Rabbi Daniel Lapin provided tips likely to enrich our socializing experience. He recommended that we join a club, such as Rotary, to meet like-minded people with a willingness to serve humanity. Interactions with them would inspire us to improve our professional or business activities. Our gregarious nature compels us to make friends or hang out with others. By all means, they will impact our habits, our thinking, and our attitude. Therefore, the key is to choose wisely who we admit in our inner circle.
Socializing offers risks and opportunities, because we are not immune from the influence of those we meet often and trust. Likewise we influence them. We maximize the opportunities by engaging our friends deliberately. We make sure that their principles, values, and beliefs are not completely at odds with ours. If this is the case, then we need to determine a narrow field of cooperation with them.
In 2020, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated that socializing accounted for 38 minutes per day, and was the next most common leisure activity after watching TV. Further, individuals spent twice as much time socializing on weekend days (58 minutes) as on weekdays (29 minutes). Doesn’t it make sense to manage it well?
In order to avoid the risks to socializing, some people choose a lonely wolf life. This choice comes with even more pitfalls. As King Solomon said, “He who isolates himself pursues selfish desires”. The solution lies in spending quality time with quality people.
Socializing correctly opens the door to learning, modeling, and coaching. We get to rub our minds against other successful minds and we become more perceptive and efficient in detecting opportunities and in finding solutions to our issues. Yes to socializing, but socialize deliberately.
Jean Ricot Dormeus
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