I feel like I left you hanging in the post Participate to Integrate. Let’s dig a little deeper. First, let’s check out some of the benefits of actively participating in a group.

1. Fulfill your inner desire to connect

When you actively participate in a community, whether online or offline, you experience your connection to other human beings. You share your ideas, bond with others who have similar interest, and get a sense that you are supported and accepted. Connecting with others deepens your sense of connection to Spirit. Actively participating is a way to practice expressing your true Self and recognizing that Self in someone else.

2. Build truer, deeper relationships

Every time I hear the word “network” I cringe. It just sounds disingenuous.

When you show up to an event, are you there to “work the room,” or are you there to build relationships, or, gasp…make friends? As an active participant in an ongoing group, or even a one time event, you give people the opportunity to sincerely interact with you. They get to know you and realize that you’re not just there for the contacts. It helps you to build trust. And trust leads to deeper, truer relationships and friendships. Best of all, it takes the angst out of “networking” and it’s fun!

3. Establish yourself as an expert

Let’s say you’re a tax attorney and you belong to a running club. Your club meets on Saturday mornings to run for an hour 3 times a month and has a business meeting on the other Saturday. Guess which one of these scenarios helps establish you as an expert.

A) You don’t bother to go to the business meeting because you’re in the club to run.

B) You show up to the meeting and talk to the guy next to you about the tax season the whole time while he’s trying to pay attention to upcoming events.

C) You talk to the guy next to you about running and such and he asks you at the end what you do. You volunteer the information and offer to give him a free consultation.

D) You’re the refreshments co-ordinator for the club. This basically means that you bring the bagels and coffee for the business meeting. You get there early, set up the refreshments, and hang around to tell people what type of bagels are there and find out how their running practice is coming. During the course of these conversations the topic of tax season comes up. Someone starts talking about some money they won in the lottery and wonders out loud if they have to claim it. Another member of the club says, “Bill’s a tax attorney. What do you think Bill?” You answer with confidence.

Yay, it’s D!

Active participation means that you are in the conversation. If the opportunity presents itself to share professional information, you are in the loop already. You’ll get the call when someone needs a business attorney or gets an audit.

4. Take ownership

In church one Sunday, the minister asked if anyone felt disconnected since moving to a new space and seeing about 100 new faces. A few people had the courage to raise their hands. Almost immediately he said, “Sign up to volunteer.”

Participating in a group in the surest way to gain ownership. You become a stakeholder, your voice is heard. Better than that, you are in a position to do something to make the changes you want to see. You own a piece of the pie.

5. Get free leadership training

Active participants in communities emerge as leaders whether it be appointed, elected, or informal. You don’t have to wait for that management trainee class at work to acquire your leadership skills, and you won’t have to wait for the management position to be baptised by fire. Once you emerge as a leader in one of your “life” groups, you receive free training. Whether it’s the online community of personal development bloggers, your Mommy and me group, or the swim team, your experience in communication, dealing with different personalities, building buy-in, or organizing events, will translate into solid leadership skills when you are called upon to lead professionally.

Now that you have some solid reasons to do so, I’ll talk about how you can actively participate in an upcoming post.

In Spirit,
Nneka