The Transactional Relationships in Your Life Today
It’s funny how a person can live their life encountering several transactional relationships and not be conscience of the term. Transactional Relationship is merely a relationship between two or more people that are in the relationship for themselves. They do things for each other with expectations of reciprocation. Majority of relationships began like this. Some are business relationships and others could be in the world of dating. I have people in my life that I realize aren’t in my life for the long haul. Some people are merely passing through. I’m sure many of you can relate to this. There is nothing wrong with transactional relationships, this is one way people grow in business however if you recognize this type of relationship you will limit your level of stress when you run into a road block or feel like you are in adverse situation with the current situation. Once you recognize you are in this type of relationship you can control your heart and mind. NEVER mistake a transactional relationship for a true friendship you will almost be disappointed every time. A transactional relationship usually has a timer set and once both parties are satisfied they either move on to other transactional relationships that deem relevance at the time or they lose touch or interest. I personally have encountered this in my lifetime. Unfortunately when it was happening, I think it was one sided. If you know me I love meeting interesting people, I don’t have a set characteristic of friendships and I don’t mind connecting people. I’m not that individual that builds walls between my friendships, if I call you my friend than I have a level of trust for you, I don’t mind introducing you to other people in my friendship circle or network. Although I know some people that try to keep their circle closed circuit for personal reason, which there is nothing wrong with that. That’s just not my personality. I feel that God gave us all gifts and gifts are to be shared. Every encounter is purposed before it even happens so if I’m used to bring two bring people together then that was my purpose at that time. I actually get excited if I introduce people to one another and something successful happens. This happens a lot with me which I feel could be my gift. I have colleagues that have witnessed this happening on so many occasions they feel I should make this a business based on the number of people I have connected over the years and the amount of financial transactions that occurred or potentially made. They felt if it wasn’t for me making that connection and both sides comfortable, the deal may not have been made and so successful. To me it was just introducing two friends that had something in common, to them it was a Transactional Relationship. Not until recently, I never looked at it like a business. I guess because I just thought it was the thing to do. I love seeing people do well and if I contribute that’s a bonus. Not too long ago I was chatting with one of my closest girlfriends and I was expressing a few things to her about a connection I made between two individuals, she read it right off the top and explained to me that those were transactional relationships. I never paid attention to that term until that very moment. Once we broke it down I almost felt used. Later I thought about it and realized that I can’t change who I am but I can be more conscience of who I deal with and on what level I chose to engage. There is thick line between Transactional relationships and genuine relations.
Tasha Robinson-White