Photo by Brett Sayles
Values are essential to our lives.
Mine may seem a little philanthropic or rather charitable and that's fine with me. What these values do for me is amazing.
Give - I give as much as I can. I add value as much as I can. I am genuine in my power to give whatever I have to as many as possible in the hope that they will grow towards their personal greatness. Giving is important.
If you give love you get love. If you give good you get good. Sometimes it takes a little longer than we expect. Sometimes we get criticized for being too slow. One thing I have figured out about life is that things happen just exactly when they are supposed to. Not a minute too early, nor a moment too late. Your time is whatever your time is. it is related to you. It is related to what you give in this life. If you give nothing expect nothing. If you throw around a few thoughts that are not your own, they are of low value. If you reshare all that you have heard without turning it into your own, so again, no value. You have to create value and you do that by giving, genuinely of yourself and of your time. If it doesn't cost you something then you did not give. It may be that there is no financial cost to what you gave, I can assure you that if you truly give, somewhere there is a cost.
Love. This is perhaps the hardest value to hold. The standards of love are so high that they are incredibly difficult to uphold. Love has been defined by scholars, poets, musicians, spiritual leaders and so the list goes on. I define love as doing for others what i would want them to do for me. I fail. Oh how often do I fail.
I live in a permanently optimistic frame of mind. I always believe that the best is going to happen. I always believe that I am going to make the deal or sign the next big client. So often it does not happen and I feel down. I let people down. I have that deep belief that things will work out and so I refocus and pick myself up and go after it again. I fuel it with love.
I will say it again: Give love, get love. I am convinced that this is true. If you are in a fight with someone stop. Think, how can I love this person. As soon as you have that thought you will not want to fight anymore. I have been challenged over and over again as I try to make life work the way I think it should, it hasn't always worked out when i wanted it to. It hasn't always given me what I wanted when i wanted it, but one thing I know. If you keep on loving long enough, you will change those around you and you will change yourself and you will change the world.
I do this in my conferences when i am speaking on stage. I get the whole audience to stand up, connect with a random person that they do not know, look them in the eyes, say their name and say, "I love you". This is massive. You can see people's circuits blowing as they do it. You see, so often we do not say these words to anyone. We think them, but we do not say them. For whatever reason we hold them back for a special moment.
Me? No way. I tell people I love them and then live it that way. I know that I let people down by not fulfilling their expectations of me and I am sorry for that. However, I just keep giving love and thinking loving thoughts until one day I am able to do what must do to make the relationship right.
Serve - I try to find ways to serve. Ways to help others. I reach out to pour water for someone in a meeting, or I will get up and pass around the cookies, I fixed a broken water pipe in the morning while I was walking, no one was there to see or to thank me. I did it because I want to serve.
When i go to the supermarket I like to praise and compliment those who serve (my wife used to get crazy about this!), and I like to make my waiter feel good. Serving is an incredible way of doing things that make others' lives better without you being asked to do it or others really knowing what you did.
These are my three values... Give Love Serve
I hope you figure out yours.
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