Seattle waterfront looking west | Photo by Jonathan Blundell

There’s one sad truth in life I’ve found
While journeying east and west –
The only folks we really wound
Are those we love the best.
We flatter those we scarcely know,
We please the fleeting guest,
And deal full many a thoughtless blow
To those who love us best.

- Ella Wheeler Wilcox

In your relationships with one another, where do you put your priorities?

Are you seeking to please the “celebrities” in your life?

Are you seeking to find the approval of strangers and leaving your family and close friends behind?

Are you finding yourself more concerned about your “followers” on your many social networks and avoiding spending time with the ones right in front of you?

It’s so easy to get caught up in.

We can easily get trapped in thinking if we can score an amazing interview, get a retweet, or a blog mention from a “celebrity”, or get an actual response from them — then we’ve made it.

We can even find ourselves overly focused on getting the most likes or comments for our latest status update.

But who’d really admit to posting a new blog or status update and then spending checking in every five to 10 minutes to see what others are saying about it?

This Guy! - Yup... I'll admit it.

How sad that we can be that concerned about what strangers think about us.

And even when we might find acceptance from the masses — those great feelings only last for a fleeting moment.

After they subside we’ll be out looking for our next big fix — the next big celebrity mention or a huge increase in our “followers.”

And yet offline, those who love us most are just waiting for a call to say, “hello.”

Trust me — I’ve been there — and I bought the t-shirt.

So as a change of pace…

• Try turning off the phone and computers this weekend.
• Forget how your influence on Twitter is ranking for a few days.
• Stop monitoring “your brand.”
• Stop worrying about how many readers you have on your blogs.
• Focus on the here and now.
• Love the ones in your immediate circle.
• Take your spouse to dinner and a movie without checking into Twitter or Foursquare every 20 minutes.
• Invite a friend out for a drink or coffee — and leave your phone in the car.
• Stop in and visit your parents or siblings for an afternoon. Stop depending on Facebook to tell you what’s going on in their lives — and stop expecting them to read your blogs to know what’s going on in yours.
• Remind yourself that you don’t have to be “in the know” 24/7.
• Let others stress about being the first to have the latest and greatest news — and you enjoy simply knowing people instead of gossip.
• Be even more intentional with your offline relationships than with those online.

What other tips do you have for building real relationships in our techno savy age?

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