The past 2 weeks have challenged me in my thinking about Law #5 of the Go Giver; The Law of Receptivity which states the key to effective giving is to stay open to receiving.
This is a law I thought I was pretty good at. I have worked on receiving compliments, receiving unexpected gifts with grace, and many other areas of receiving. But two weeks ago, my cat, Tigre, had to be put to sleep. She has been with me for nearly 21 years. She is my family in California as I have no other family here. I was devastated. Someone suggested I put it on Facebook so I could get support and love from others. That didn’t feel right for me to do but I did send an email to a few friends and family across the United States. My intent wasn’t to receive support as much as it was to let people know so I didn’t have to keep talking about it. Just about everyone on my list wrote back in sympathy since many of them had been through a similar experience. Some called and a few sent flowers. I was so overwhelmed with all the love and support I received.
Last week in a very different way, I experienced so much support from my fellow Go Giver coaches when I shared on our Facebook page about some exciting news and opportunities I had received. Many of the coaches and even Bob Burg himself 🙂 wrote to me to congratulate me. Again, I felt overwhelmed by all the support.
Both of these experiences made me realize that receiving is indeed a very difficult thing for me and probably for most people. It just isn’t what we are taught to do.
In both of my recent experiences, I eventually was able to sit back and enjoy the feeling of warmth, shared pain or excitement and thoroughly enjoy it – knowing that I wasn’t alone. But it took effort to stay in the moment and not brush it off. So, how open to receiving are you, REALLY?
