Personal Village: How to have people in your life by choice, not chance.
By Marvin Thomas ©2004

Your most valuable asset is the people in your life. Does this sound familiar? Or better yet, are you too busy to have any friends in your life? What if you decided who you wanted to have in your life – by choice, not by chance?

Anyone with who you decide to spent time (in person, email, phone, IM) form your personal village and affect your vitality and happiness. Thomas asserts that many of us leave our personal happiness to chance.

Respected relationship therapist, Marv Thomas’ book, Personal Village: How To Have People In Your Life By Choice, Not Chance, is a do-it-yourself guide to resisting the dehumanizing and impersonal forces of the 21st century while establishing closer bonds with the people around us. It explains how to enrich our lives and add value and meaning, by establishing deeper connections with the people around us.

"To achieve intimacy with another, we have to begin by listening." ~Marvin Thomas. Begin to build a conscious choice community this holiday season.

In Personal Village, he maps the human propensity for socialization and provides checklists and thought-provoking questions that can help us create positive change, embrace circumstance, and, if need be, reconstruct our core families. It also offers a wealth of accessible, practical advice concerning avoiding destructive individuals, reinforcing and celebrating lasting friendships, and keeping our circle of friends diversified so that when change and loss occur we are not left alone.

But you can his ideas and go farther by learning how to decide who to have in your life and at what level of participation you are willing to take the time to engage with them. Grow your social network of people that share your dream and are interested in watching it grow. Grow your own personal village to people that want to grow with you and want to contribute to your dream.