Watch for your Lesson
By Nick Grimshawe
The other day,I almost missed , a very valuable lesson, life placed on my path.
As a committed student of self development, I strive to stay aware of the messages in the form of threads that
the universe sends my way, in an effort to further my development.
Selfless giving and sharing constitute a challenge to me. That I didn't share well shocked me when I first made this self discovery while taking Tools to Life, a self development course. The beauty of growth is to see into dark corners you didn't even know existed. I determined to shine a light into this area of my being and to make a better effort to offer to share and give, in every conceivable way I could.
The other day I found myself in breech of my own ethics and I didn't even notice at first.
I found myself in a position of defending a certain action I had taken. I had asked for someone's time on an important project. This person decided they didn't want to take part and went over my head to another person to get me to back off.
The person I am talking about has been a recipient of my sharing and giving.
I felt annoyed by the whole process so when her boss phoned to complain to me I felt compelled, by way of explanation,to say, I had more than compensated for the hour I was asking of her. I made my point quite forcibly to the other party, who finally realized I was asking for much less that I had given out. We came to an agreement to avoid situations like this in the future and we hung up on friendly terms.
I thought nothing about the incident after that, until it popped into my head while out walking with the dogs.
As always on these walks, I use the time to reflect. Recently however my focus is to stay in the present and thus avoid all the negatives that arise from revisiting past grievances or creating new ones in the future.
I don't know about you, but this is a struggle: however, I am slowly winning.
When I flashed back on the conversation I saw my error.
In business and in many other areas of life we do what is called "calling in a favor". Politics is littered with this tactic. I scratch your back you scratch mine. As a method of exchange it is opened to manipulation and betrayal, which might explain why politics taste so sour most of the time.
In bringing up my bargaining tool to justify my action I went into agreement with common practice.
But to give, truly give, must come without attachments. I liken it to sending an email with an attachment that changes the original meaning and intent of the email.
To give or share means there are no attachments. You cannot later go back and say, "you know that time I gave you one hundred dollars, well it was really a loan. I need it back now".
Because I watched for these lessons to come my way, and because the universe is generous in giving us more than one chance to spot the lesson, I received an important lesson in giving.
Make sure you are listening and watching for your lessons.
Nick Grimshawe