Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life: How to Unlock Your Full Potential for Success and Achievement

Put People First
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RESIST RELATIONSHIP ENTROPY
The natural tendency in all relationships is toward 
entropy
. Rela-
tionship entropy means that relationships run out of energy un-
less they are continually renewed. People stop doing the things
that they had done earlier to establish the relationship in the first
place. They work very hard to create the relationship, and then
they take it for granted. They forget to communicate with the
other person. They just assume that everything is going along 
fine and that no extra efforts are necessary to maintain the rela-
tionship. As it happens, men are more likely than women to let
this happen.
But all relationships are a function of the time invested in them.
You can only increase the value of a relationship by investing more
time in it. This applies to a relationship with your spouse, relation-
ships with your children, relationships with your staff members, and
especially relationships with your friends and associates on a per-
sonal and professional level.
There is no alternative to personal time invested in building and
maintaining a relationship. You must be alert to the danger of rela-
tionship entropy and be constantly working to counter it.
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