Is it truly better to give than to receive?

C.S. Lewis wrote: “I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. In other words, if our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, amusements, etc, is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving away too little. If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small. There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot do because our charitable expenditure excludes them.”

The principle of “Just Because” teaches us that when we forget the calculus of getting a future return on a relationship, and we just serve someone because it is the right thing to do, we leave a scarcity mentality. When we leave scarcity, we find we are offering others a different person to respond to. Generous people attract generosity, and real relationships can be created when people aren’t worried about being taken advantage of or about getting their own needs met. Generosity is a way for us to send a strong signal to ourselves, and then to others, that we have an abundance mindset and will create mutually beneficial interactions.

If you don’t perceive enough generosity from others, maybe you need to make the first move. Need some extra fuel? Think of someone who sacrificed for you. Write down that story. Remember how they made you feel. Just because it is simple, don’t forget that accessing gratitude is the main ingredient required to power all of your meaningful connections with others.

And the next time you feel to help someone, but then think, “That would really be a sacrifice!” At that moment, take the leap and pay it forward; Just Because. Happy Holidays!