When it comes to learning a new skill, one of the most important things you can do accelerate success is to connect with like-minded individuals by joining a community around that topic.
These relationships might help you get the support, resources, and added help that might need to successful in your journey.
Being around people who are on a similar journey and share the same interests, passions, and goals can become aids when facing challenges progress.
What does it take to join a community?
To find a community that appreciates your every little success and understands your struggles, you must first be fully aware of your goals, expectations from others, and what you're willing to contribute.
Look deep inside and figure out your motives and how you can bring value to the community. By being an active participant and contributing, organically, you will see people providing you with advice on how they were achieved progress within their journeys.
Being a part of a community doesn't come easy; they aren't immune from challenging circumstances.
Here are five steps that are going to help you find the right community.
1. Understand yourself
The first important thing is understanding yourself through personal reflection. It is vital to have a deep transparent understanding of what you're hoping to achieve. You should be clear about what you want from a community and how you can contribute to it.
You then, in turn, can go down the journey of finding resources or information about how you can achieve what you're hoping to do and what you need. It is easier to move on to the next step when you are entirely aware of your expectations.
To other content creators this can be as simple as commenting and providing real feedback on their information people share.
2. Be ready to bring value to the community
One of the fundamental pieces about seeking and being part of a community is making sure that you're driving value to it.
When you are active to help contribute and make sure that the community is thriving, you will then, in turn, get others who will invest the same type of resources or time in helping you along your journey. But be sure not to have those high expectations; sometimes you'll get little in return but sometimes even more.
3. Find a leader who's best for your development
Research the leaders who are creating these communities. A leader is someone who's going to guide you towards your goal.
I've been fortunate enough to meet a a lot of different individuals who are phenomenal leaders that make you want to stay once when you join a community. They consistently invest their time and efforts to ensure that everyone with in their community is getting value with clear expectations and goals.
The great try to take the time to engage members on a personal level t foster stronger relationships.
4. Determine how much you are willing to share with the community
When it comes to finding and engaging with communities, it is fundamental that you determine how much you will share and participate.
You get the best results when you do so. Don't overextend yourself; set the proper expectations with yourself about how you're going to share and contribute, whether that is sharing content, commenting on other people's content, or simply providing your own stories and solutions on how you solve your problems.
Active participation can help in knowing each other better and building bonds.
5. Challenges down the road, have patience.
At first, you might have a tough time settling down. Have patience in learning and being part of the community. It is quite evident that you won't have an instant connection with a new group of people; it'll take time to establish such bonds.
Being a part of a thriving community means feeling a sense of kinship, camaraderie and connectedness, but to achieve that level, you must invest as much time as you can. Those investments can turn into such a huge amount of value as you proceed and continue down your journey of developing new skills, new relationships, and essentially becoming a better you.
Don't be frustrated if you can't seem to fit in at first; all great things take time. Hang in there.
I highly recommend that you get involved with a community of like-minded people on a similar journey and path like yourself. This will help you learn from the people around you more effectively and start moving past objections and challenges quicker. In addition to that, when you reach new thresholds and new levels, you'll be able to celebrate with people who care and understand your success.
I explore this topic more on my podcast here if you interested to learn more about some of my experiences connect more with like-minded people on a similar path like me.