SOLD: Beautiful Happyzine

“Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness and understanding you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again.”

Og Mandino

My second tip for success has no fancy name; it is simply to Be Generous. Whether it is your clients, your relationship with friends, partner, parents or kids, your dealings with charities or your attitude to telemarketers at dinner time, when it comes to generosity you have two choices… To be or not to be.

Generosity is something that you give with no expectation of return and it does not have to cost you anything. Think of generosity as the opportunity from which you can share positive energy with another person or group.

• It is a warm smile to a complete stranger
• It is holding someone in high esteem, even when they are down on themselves
• It is sharing of your expertise and knowledge with someone who needs it
• It is taking the time to support someone in solving a problem
• It is not getting annoyed when dealing with someone who is really hard work!

The thing with generosity is that there is no right or wrong or measure of too much.

One thing I realised was that being generous is different from “giving” and this was very important to distinguish. Some people define themselves as being givers but generally in the world of give and take, where resources are limited. Generosity does not “count” for anything and it comes from a place where it is able to replenish itself time and time again.

Another thing that I had to learn was that while it is important to be generous, it is equally important to allow others to be generous with you, and this is what allows for incredible relationships with friends and colleagues, and unbelievably fabulous occurrences that you would never have dared dreamed possible (yes, you may call these miracles).

In a world of so many automated, faceless transactions I believe that you can never be too generous in your ways of being, and the best bit is that it takes the focus away from your own crazy self talk for at least a few moments!

If this idea seems ridiculous maybe try a whole day or week of being generous. If it’s a real stretch for you, try the basics like smiling and making eye contact with people who pass you by… Just remember to blink.

PS. If you are not already, please subscribe to my blog I genuinely get excited every time I see new people on there!!
About Serena Star-Leonard:

I have always had a healthy belief that if you really want to do what you love for a living you can find a way to make it work for you (and done right make it work really well for you!). My coaching practice is designed to guide people who understand that there is something more to life than working 9-5 and who are driven to do something about it.
Recently I noticed that many people were trying to use the internet to create alternate sources of income but made the same costly mistakes time and time again. So much so that I partnered up and created Grassroots Internet Strategy, a small business resource that helps people understand what they really need to know and plan for.
If you have a burning desire to either start or expand I would love to hear from you