Generosity has become a very popular buzz word, a little like authenticity. It has cynically become a must-do strategy.
Generosity is not giving someone a wonderful gift and sitting back awaiting the thank you card.
Generosity is not giving someone a lovely compliment and expecting her to reciprocate, leaving only disappointment when it is not forthcoming.
Generosity is not offering to build someone’s new website and then expecting that person to do our accounts for free.
If you feel that you’re always giving and then people are taking advantage of you, then you are not actually giving, you are not being generous, you are almost underhandedly selling, as your gift has a ‘price’ attached to it. In your head, you have ‘given’ with an expected almost conditional reciprocation.
True generosity, often time being the best example, is where you give unconditionally and you give because it brings you pleasure, brings you joy and you have done it with no motive other than that.
So next time you feel that you are giving and not getting anything in return, perhaps question if you had an expectation of a return.
If you expect nothing, it is impossible to be disappointed. More often true giving brings amazing surprises some point in the future and often totally unexpected.
Give for the love of life and for the pleasure it can bring you.
Share your gifts without conditions set in your head or implied to others.
That’s being generous.
Philip Dodson 