We are biologically programmed to connect with people across different fronts, whether you are interested in this concept or not, you can’t survive alone. This explains why you need to effectively as possible define your personal ecosystem, nurture it to the point where it favours your existence and your growth. Seeing that with the penetration of Technology and globalization, the world is no longer a divided rock but a flat- connected surface that needs each connecting point to thrive. This goes a long way to reinforce the fact that, you cannot thrive alone, you need people, you need “shoulders and you need legs”.
Your personal ecosystem is never expected to be stable, it’s dynamic and multifaceted, requiring time, energy and focus. The key is to manage our personal ecosystem like a start-up business, we need to sharpen it daily, abhor the negative, unwanted and unhealthy aspects of it till it gets to the point where we begin to leverage it as a tool and decide exactly what we want to make of it.
Immediately you agree to bring anyone into your ecosystem, you authorize or give the permission of influence. Whether positively or negatively there is a degree of influence. And yes, there are some authorizations that we absolutely have no control over like the family we were birthed into. In as much as this instance is not exhaustive, we have been given some level of opportunity to extend invitations to people to join our personal ecosystem.
The ultimate question then remains unchanged, who are you extending an invitation to? who is in your ecosystem? and where did the authorization come from? Did it come from you, a co-worker, a friend, a family member or circumstances that you literally had no control over? These questions at present lack good answers and as often as we grapple with them, it’s important we ask ourselves. Your personal ecosystem encompasses your network, the positive and the negative relationships, your mindset, your perspective, and your experience, all these elements weave through to create your unique footprint, establishing for yourself an intentional ecosystem underpinned by conscious choices, people, circumstances and events.
I personally connect with people who connect authentically, yet, I don’t have a robust personal ecosystem, because as human as we are, we are grappling with a lot of things, and the truth is, we would have to make mistakes, chance on the wrong people and ask ourselves how on earth could we have allowed this to happen, and that is exactly why we are available to keep each other going, to become the roadmap, the signpost or even the red flag if the need be.
So, the message here is short, our personal ecosystem is dynamic such that we need to commit ourselves to getting it extremely functional and purpose-oriented. This will enable us to derive the desired snowball effect of the invitations we extend. Leverage these indicators or try answering these questions to figure out if you have a fully- functional personal ecosystem;
▪ Are the authorizations and invitations I have extended to people serving the purpose?
▪ What are the experiences that have characterized those authorizations?
▪ What is the degree of influence and the growth implications that have occurred as a result?
Written by: Janet Emefa Agbedor
LinkedIn & Facebook: Janet Emefa Agbedor
Instagram & Twitter: @the _real_emefa