Tag Archives: generosity

To Have What You Want

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“To have what you want, don’t want it—give it.”

-Author Unknown

Image from Flickr by Alvanman

Image from Flickr by Alvanman

A dozen years ago The Secret was all the rage. Wherever you looked in bookstores, on the internet, and on Oprah, everyone wanted to master the secret to a happier life. Many also referred to it as the Law of Attraction, which is inherent in phrases like, “what you think about comes about.”

Today’s quote puts a bit of spin on this idea in that it suggests we simply need to give what we want to get.

Consider this list of the things most people want, and perhaps add a few of your own:

Love Respect Praise Trust
Loyalty Joy Happiness Pleasure
Wealth Adventure Achievement Acknowledgement
Health Peace Friendship Encouragement

EXERCISE:

How and where can you get far more of what you want by generously giving it to others? With whom could you begin this practice today?

Lose Yourself in Service

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“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”

—Mahatma Gandhi, Indian Independence Leader

Image from blog.bcwinstitute.org

Image from blog.bcwinstitute.org

We’ve all heard statements such as “givers gain,” and “shift your life from success to significance.”

But how do we do it?

Today’s quote challenges us to lose ourselves in a good way, to find our flow and purpose, what we might call our true north.

When I ‘give,’ I grow and feel I’m living a more expansive and true life. When I ‘get,’ I feel good too, but it’s not the same experience or at the same level.

EXERCISE:

Where and how can you serve others so that you both lose and find yourself in the experience?

“Our job is the excuse through which we get to love people.”

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“Our job is the excuse through which we get to love people.”

– Panache Desai, author of You are Enough

What percent of your life do you spend engaged in work? For the sake of today’s quote, I’m going to define work as our vocation, or the way we earn a living.

For the person working Monday through Friday, a minimum of 8 hours a day (who does that these days?) work represents approximately one fourth of our life. If the song lyrics from the Beatles tune are true, and all you need is love, or the old song love makes the world go round, then perhaps Desai is really on to something.

Exercise:

How can you view your daily work efforts as an act of love, contribution and generosity, instead of something to get through on the way to your weekend?