I was fortunate to witness a couple of very amazing things last week. Both left a mark and made me feel lucky and blessed. While a master left a lasting impression, our son made sure that I really understood the concept, by giving me an example. What was it then? A tutorial on how to handle abundance.
I have been listening to some podcasts lately. One that I am a huge fan of, is a podcast by Michael Hyatt. He blogs about intentional leadership and, this week, he talked about the existence of two schools of thought - one frequented by abundance thinkers and and the other made up of scarcity thinkers. The idea of "abundance thinking" is close to my heart because I have always believed that true leadership contributes to building the next wave of leaders. According to, what turned out to be a very inspiring few minutes, abundance thinkers, among other things:
- are open to sharing
- exceed expectations in giving
- are optimistic
- think big
Scarcity thinkers, according to Michal Hyatt, are usually pessimistic and not open to sharing or competing with others. In turn, because of positive human behavior, abundance thinking has a greater chance to make a person truly happy. Quite simple really, don't you think?
My mantra: Do Good. Be Good. Good will happen to you.
Our son, a toddler now, took it upon himself, intentionally of course, and made sure that I understood and appreciated the simplicity of the idea. While playing with other kids of his age, he was open to sharing his toys. The teachers also showered praises because, apparently, the little master pacifies other kids (we are still talking about toddlers) when they are upset sometimes. I am pretty sure that it was just a coincidence, but the timing of it all could not have been better. To top it all off, our son actually feels happy when he shares his things or helps other kids in need. Part of me swells with pride, because of our son's behavior. The other part cannot help but question societal and professional pressure that takes all this goodness away from us and hides it somewhere.
To share, to help and to encourage are not hard concepts to grasp. These powerful human traits are present in all of us. We just seem to forget, and forgo, our blessings sometimes. We get so entangled in our definition of success that we ignore the most basic reason of our existence - to be good human beings.
My son seems to get it. I hope to do more.
What is your mantra? How do you handle abundance?
Michael Hyatt's website: http://michaelhyatt.com/
Photo: Flickr (hippie)
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