At this time of year, “giving” gets more attention than other times.
And, more than any other time, we hear that “giving is its own reward”.
Yet, when asked what this means, most of us give very different answers or have trouble explaining it.
The interesting thing about “giving” is that, at a heightened level of awareness, it becomes a powerful motivator and life-simplifier.
Here’s what this means…
It means that unless we are clear that “giving” is the ACTUAL reward and that there is NOTHING past that, it’s very easy for us to set ourselves up for confusion, disappointment and frustration.
This happens because we might be expecting something back – consciously or unconsciously – when we “give”, even though we haven’t actually negotiated it.
When we expect something back, we are actually “keeping score” and don’t even know it.
We call this the trap of non-negotiated expectations.
Here’s the way to avoid all this…
This season, when you give, try to stop with the “giving” itself and know that this is the actual reward. Don’t expect ANYTHING back.
When this happens, “giving” is truly its own reward.