I love reading! There is a common thing said about books “sometimes you find a good book and sometimes a good book finds you". This is a prime example of that right now I am reading “You are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life” by Jen Sincero. Don’t get me wrong most days I think my life is awesome and I certainly don’t need to be told I am a badass that is for sure! However, we all have our moments where multiple events can start piling up in life and pretty soon it can feel like an avalanche is on top of you. In those times life can become incredibly painful. It’s not always easy to bounce back from challenging circumstances. Great leaders, athletes and people learn how to bounce back instinctively but even the best of us need help getting back on track sometimes depending on what is going on.
I wanted to share an excerpt from this “You are a Badass” book. This story hit me at the perfect time:
“It is one of the beautiful compensations in this life that no one can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
One day while driving somewhere with my family, we stopped off at a store along the way and told my niece, then five years old, that she could get herself a little sumthin’. She came up to the register with a six-pack of orange Tic Tacs and charmed her way into getting the whole thing, instead of being told to put it back and just buy one.
So we get back in the car and I ask her if I can have a pack, my only intent to teach the greedy little piglet a thing or two about sharing. “Of course,” she says and hands it over. She then asks in her itty-bitty five-year-old voice, if my brother and my mom want one too, and hands them over. My niece then takes the remaining three packs and places them on the seat next to her in a pile saying, “And when we get home, this one’s for my brother, this one’s for my sister, this one’s for my mom.” Then she sits there with none left for herself, and smiles, more excited to give them away than when she was told she could buy them for herself.
As my niece so clearly understood, giving is one of our greatest joys. It’s also one of the most fearless and powerful gestures there is. When we trust that we live in an abundant universe and allow ourselves to give freely, we raise our frequency, strengthen our faith and feel awesome, thereby putting ourselves in flow and the position to receive abundant amounts in return.
When we’re in fear, we hold on to what we’ve got because we don’t trust that there’s more. We pinch off the energy, we’re scared to share, and we focus on, and create more of, the very thing we are hoping to avoid, which is lack.
We live in a universe of give and receive, breathe and exhale, live and die, suck and awesome. Each side depends on the other, and each is relative to the other - every action has an equal and opposite reaction - so the more you give the more you receive. And vice versa.
Thank you Jen Sincero! I loved that message.
I would even like take it one step further and say that when you are open to living a challenging life you open yourself up to the full spectrum of what there is to offer. This means the good comes with the bad. When the bad comes and you are not feeling at your best sometimes the very best thing that can be done is to give to someone else even if its in a small way like the Tic Tacs mentioned in the story. This perspective can really make a big difference. It is important to realize that life isn’t all about you giving and sharing are some of the best ways to shift the negative to the positive. It is also important to be where you are and live the experience so you can fully take the lesson in that you are learning. Don’t avoid it or shy away just take it in and feel it fully that way when the good comes to counterbalance the negative you have gone through that can be enjoyed to the fullest as well.
The biggest lessons are usually the most painful and the best memories are usually the most brilliant. Courageously live your life to the fullest!
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