Cool Ways to Give – Make Sure You Can Receive!
Have you considered the difference between being someone who can receive a gift and being a “taker”?
This conversation came up among some crew members at UPW last week.
I love this community because we have conversations like this. We challenge our “rules” that might not be serving us so we can improve our lives.
Crew members and participants at this event are always giving! We give high fives, hugs, back rubs and even small gifts!
Allow someone to give you a gift.
If someone is offering you a gift – of their time, money, possessions, self – then it’s OKAY for you to receive it. THANK YOU is an acceptable response. I APPRECIATE YOU is an acceptable response.
This seems obvious.
However, think about all the times you might have said “Oh you don’t have to do that.” or “that’s too much. noo. you can’t.” Maybe it’s a Southern practice or maybe it’s just bad programming.
Maybe we’re afraid that we’re going to be seen as a taker.
See the interesting conversation!?
To me the difference is intention and focus.
If you’re expecting or feeling entitled to someone’s gift, then that could be crossing the line of receiving vs taking.
A cool thing happened while my friend Kim and I were searching for a quick lunch. We were looking in a pizza place and realized the line was too long for us to get back in time. Randomly a group of people offered us their pizza and invited us to join them. They said they were full and were going to leave the pizza – we must sit down and join them. Wow – we were surprised at the offer from strangers, but it seemed genuine and harmless.
We would learn that they were a family from the Dominican Republic who barely spoke English but knew hospitality so well. “Poppy” was giving up his chair and getting us drinks without skipping a beat.
It was beautiful.
We shared about our UPW experience and went our separate ways.
I’m not sure how they were impacted by this random gift; however Kim and I felt so blessed and have shared the story of their generosity many times.
I share a few more examples in the video above.
I love being around giving people, and I strive to find even more ways to delight the people around me.
How do you give to others? Join the conversation 🙂
This is Part 6 in a series called Entrepreneur Travel Life! Here is Part 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 if you missed it.
