What Effect Have Your Relationships
on Your Personal Growth?

By Lilian O'Brien

Relationships are a great way of establishing a human connection in order to express feelings and emotions.

Almost every single soul on earth is in one kind of relationship or another. The varieties of relationships make it unique and possible to explore, and this exploration is needed to establish the development of man with his environment. The power of relationships cannot be overlooked or overemphasized — relationships contribute to a great deal, the way your life is shaped. It doesn't matter with who or what that relationship is, as long as there's a commitment, your life automatically revolves around that someone or something. 

Relationships range from cordial to platonic, to formal. Your relationship with your boss is totally different from your relationship with your mother or your fiancée. The environment in which you find yourself determines the type of relationship you will establish with the people around you. Also, your relationship might be tied to animals or even inanimate objects. Some people enjoy the company of animals more than they do to that of humans, and that's their own relationship. Your relationship determines how you view life and the behavior you exhibit among people and animals. 

To adequately understand the way relationships affect your life, we will break down the different kinds of relationships according to your environment and expound on how it affects your life. 

Work Relationship:

Your work relationship is the type of relationship that requires you to know when to get close and when to withdraw. Most people make the mistake of getting too close or getting too withdrawn, especially with their boss(es). Your relationship in your workplace determines the perception of people towards you, and it also affects your productivity to a large extent. When you have a healthy work relationship with your boss and coworkers, you will wake up every day happy to go to work. When you're happy, you're more productive and more lively than when you're not looking forward to going to work. 

Note that your work relationship can also be affected by other types of relationships. Happiness is contagious, which means that an unhappy relationship with another person can influence your work relationship. 

Love relationships:

This is the type of relationship that is most common, and yet so difficult for people. Everyone wants love, and everyone deserves love, but not everyone knows how to love. The attraction you have for another person or thing is relative to how deeply you love that someone or something. The first stages of a love relationship require communication and effort. Without communication, it becomes very difficult to reach an agreement or understanding.

"Communication is the solvent of all problems; therefore, communication skills are the foundation for personal development." —Peter Shepherd

When you communicate effectively, you will have more information that will help you to prepare for the next step. A happy love relationship will yield positive results because it impacts the way you react. When you're in love with someone who loves you equally or more, you will have a natural glow that comes from the happiness coming from the depth of your heart. You will subtly enjoy things, and this will extend to your productivity and effectiveness. 

Also, when you're in love, you tend to make huge decisions that can turn out good or very drastic as the case may be. Your reaction to people is mostly dependent on whether you're happy or not with your love relationship. 

Casual/Open Relationship:

This works best for people who are not ready to enter into a commitment with their partners. Casual relationships allow you to enjoy some of the perks of relationships without putting all your eggs in one basket. Unlike the normal relationship where you can't pull out without hurting one another, the causal relationship gives you the chance to pull out or quit whenever you want to. Casual relationships are especially popular among single women and men in their late 50s. These men and women have either been unmarried or separated and while they are not ready to go into another commitment, they want to enjoy someone's company. This type of relationship also has its results in your life. When you're in a casual relationship, you'll most likely find it hard to be committed to anything. The lack of commitment towards your partner can influence the way you interact with people and things. Knowing that you owe nobody a detailed explanation in your relationship can also cause you to be unaccountable in your place of work or your environment. 

Establishing a relationship is vital to the growth of humans, but entering the wrong one might be detrimental to your mental health. Mental health issues remain one of the most common problems of being in the wrong relationship. Sometimes, people get too attached, and it is at this point they become very dangerous and sometimes uncontrollable. 

Conclusion

One of the best ways of living a good life is by entering a healthy relationship and by establishing personal relationships that are essential to your personal growth. Your reaction to situations and the development of a good relationship increases your output and leads you down the path of happiness.