The Importance of Communities

I am not an actively social person. I am fortunate to have married a man who is equally private about his life so together we live a fairly introverted and quiet life. I like it this way because for the most part, I am not interested in the opinions of others when it comes to things that I feel are personal (child-rearing, religion, politics, money, etc). That said, I came to the realization over the weekend that even for those of us who run away to the country most weekends, we cannot escape the importance of community. You cannot and should not expect to "do it all" on your own, particularly when there are others available and interested in helping you in a way that makes your life a little better.

This really became clear to me over the July 4th weekend on a number of fronts.

• At That’s Good HR, we like to have fun. In the spirit of originality in our quest for fun, two of our staff members decided to celebrate Christmas in July. They planned and executed an entire day dedicated to traveling around Indianapolis and spreading some July 4th cheer to our local client community. Without our loyal Indianapolis staffing customers, where would we be? This is a community of people call us for much more than simply need us to provide a service. They call us just to talk, to check in and to see how we are doing. They provide us with referrals to other customers and they are not afraid to tell us when we need to do something better.

• My husband has been searching for a boat to buy for over a year. This weekend he finally found what he was looking for and just in time for a perfect boating weekend. As we spent much of the weekend on the lake with a boat that we were still learning how to use, the importance of the boating community became clear. Boaters are wonderful people. Your ticket to entry is a boat. After that, anyone is willing to help you along in your quest to become an active and competent participant in this community. We had a number of little glitches along the way this weekend and there was always someone there willing to offer help. As I idled by the loading dock waiting for my husband to bring down the trailer, I observed the dynamics of boaters loading and unloading and the constant activity of strangers helping each other as challenges presented themselves.

• My neighbor is working on a website dedicated to supporting the cancer community. It is unique in many ways and as this site prepares to launch, testing of the site usability and functionality is in full swing. As we were talking about this project over the weekend, I was amazed to hear about all of the people who have experienced cancer in any way (patient, survivor, caregiver) who are so willing to participate in helping others in the cancer community. I have not personally had experience with cancer, thankfully, but if I ever do, it was heartwarming to hear that I would not be alone in my journey.

It was a thoughtful weekend for me as I believe that we can take for granted the strength of the communities that surround us. Typically I think about networks and support as it relates to Indianapolis staffing and HR as this is where my focus is day to day. These are important communities to engage as they will carry you through good times and bad in your career so take good care of the relationships you have within these communities. Don’t forget to look around and recognize other communities that can help to make your life better in many ways big and small.