In our experience, loyalty is underappreciated. It’s not as if people don’t care about it, but life happens: people get busy, stressed out, and they may lose sight of what is really important.
The importance of loyalty impacts all our lives. From personal to professional relationships, it has a very demanding presence. But what makes it so important? The importance of loyalty lies within what we are able to gain and learn from it.
Commitment
Moreover, you need to show that you can commit to something other than, and sometimes larger than yourself. Humans are inherently selfish, and there’s nothing wrong with that. The problem arises when people are not able to think beyond themselves. Throughout life you will be part of relationships, clubs, organizations, sports teams, arts classes, and many other groups that will demand a certain degree of loyalty from you. To appreciate these groups it’s important to understand the positive affects loyalty creates.
Friendship
To have friends you have to be a good friend. If you want people to text you and ask how you’re doing, you should do the same. If you want people to hear your stories and offer advice, you better brush up on your listening skills. It doesn’t mean stopping everything to comment about your friend’s wardrobe choices. It’s all in the details: the small parts that make up the bigger picture of loyalty. Creating and maintaining a friendship requires a certain level of commitment and loyalty in order to succeed.
Fundamental Skills
Loyalty will teach you responsibility, consideration and decency. Being loyal isn’t easy. If it was, everyone would do it, and I wouldn’t be writing this article to tell you how valuable loyalty is. To be a continuously loyal person you must be able to think about the future: think about how your actions will affect others and pay attention so you can properly give care to where it’s deserved.
Teamwork
On top of the skills loyalty teaches, it will also teach you how to assume the identity of a follower. Being a leader is good, but being a follower is a necessary skill. As a follower you are able to learn from others and use that experience to enrich your own life. There are certain people who are born leaders and even if that describes you, there will be times where you’ll need to take a step back. Taking a step back might be uncomfortable but it will teach you to respect other’s opinions and give you insight into how you want to lead in the future. Being a follower depends on loyalty. You’ll get far in life if you’re able to show loyalty to your leader and fellow followers by demonstrating your commitment and care for the organization.
Loyalty is not something that necessarily comes easy, you must work at it. It all comes down to the fact that values make us who we are. Values must be structured, consistent and practiced to be legitimate. Practice makes permanent and being loyal to your values helps build and maintain your character, which, at the end of the day, is all we have.
Be decent, live with a standard of loyalty, and the rest will fall into place.