Give To Others Even When You Don’t Receive

The best thing in life is to receive. Receive love, help from others, great advice, positive wishes: receive anything. For some reason, though, the hardest thing in life for people is to give. To give usually means to sacrifice, to give up, more than anything, and our society seems to have a really hard time with this. There is a constant fear among today’s generation to have to compete with others, and more importantly, to win. Some think that giving means losing, but in reality, when you give, you actually gain. To give yourself is to gain yourself. Point blank.

So give your love and compassion, always. Give your love to your friends and family not only when it is needed, but also when it isn’t. There is something nurturing unlike anything else about getting a message out of the blue from a friend or family member, or receiving a phone call because the caller just wanted to hear your voice. Love really cures anything. Life is short and there is nothing worse than not feeling loved or receiving compassion. But give compassion to strangers, too. When someone does a favor for you, or they did something that unknowingly helped you a great deal, give thanks. When you give compassion and thanks, you gain appreciation and respect, and others will help you in some way.

Help others. Give your guidance and support to those in need, whether it is an elder needing a seat on the subway, or your coworker struggling with an assignment at work. Helping heals: it provides solace where needed and understanding for benefit. Furthermore, in life, you will always be part of a team, whether it is in your job, in your family or among your friends. The only way to succeed in a team is by explaining your ideas, by asking questions to reach further understanding, or by offering ways to compromise. You have to either help others or you help yourself in order to reach your maximum potential. Everyone wants to move forward, and we can all survive a little better with some assistance.

I have always believed that strength is one of the greatest characteristics that one can possess. I believe that you can do anything with great strength, but it is not easy – unrealistic, really – to be strong all the time. When you come across others who are weak, in the moment or at that point in their life, give your strength. Remind them that everyone can gain strength and find the courage to survive, and better yet, to thrive. Give them strength to keep going, to find their way. In giving strength, you will gain stability: it enables and enhances the feeling of power to overcome anything.

And give your life lessons and all kinds of advice. We struggle, we fight, we hurt and we love: that is life. We experience happiness and pain and there are no secrets to survival, but if we are given just a few words to help us get through, to help avoid or to help minimize the pain and the hurt, we should share it. There is nothing heroic or courageous about getting ahead while consciously letting others suffer. Our culture has somewhat become a popularity contest, but life is really about growing and learning over all else. You must give advice to enrich the experiences of others so that there is opportunity for growth. And not only will you help others to grow, but you, too, will grow because by reevaluating your experiences, you may alter how you move forward in certain situations or experiences in the future.

There is a lot of good to give, but you have to give pain, too. Give pain when you have toxic people in your life, when you are not being challenged, when you are being treated less than you deserve. When you can’t be strong anymore, you’re allowed to give pain. Because pain is good sometimes: more than anything, we learn from pain. We learn from heartbreak, disappointment and failure. We learn to improve and to succeed and to change. But the thing is, giving pain is not unlimited. Only give pain when necessary, to make a point or take a stand, not to put someone else down. You give pain when you need to move forward or change direction in life, and you give pain to express feeling. You show pain to reach positivity – not only for yourself, but for others, too. But remember this: you never use pain to hurt.

Giving is more than just a good deed, you see. It opens doors, it fills voids – in your heart, and in life – and it helps, never harms. You need to give, even if and when – especially when – you don’t receive. When you give, you gain strength and knowledge. You receive a sense of gratification, and sometimes you may be challenged, but by giving, you can only grow. So, give always. Give everything. Give to everyone. You will be given back to in time.