Give And It Will Come Back To You

Over the past several weeks, I have been studying success and achievement from many different sources. I have been immersing myself in all sorts of self-help and motivational materials including Brian Tracy’s series on achievement, the movie “The Secret”, Zig Ziglar’s Inspiring Words of Encouragement Podcast, Steve Pavlina’s blog and podcast, and the Holy Bible.

I have found that there is one common thread in all of these materials–one phrase that sums up the secret to success and happiness in life. That phrase is “Give, and it will come back to you.” Now each of these materials approaches this universal law in a different way.

The Secret movie urges us to give our thoughts and emotions to the things that we want and they will come back to us through the “law of attraction.” Zig Ziglar approaches the subject by reminding us what to be grateful for and to project a kind and good attitude, the Holy Bible reminds us in many ways to: “do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” “as a man thinks in his heart, so is he,” and “draw nigh unto God and He will draw nigh unto you.”

All of these philosophies, whether tied to religious works or not, tell us that our universe, environment, destiny, whatever-you-want-to-call-it, is built solely on what we put out there. We will reap what we sow, etc. Now any of these sentiments taken at face value could prompt the rebuttal, “easier said than done.”

But I want to reason with you that it is easier “done than said.”

 I have heard these idea and concepts preached from the pulpit, given on audio books about increasing interpersonal relationships, etc. but there always seems to be a focus on removing the negatives in our lives. We are told to “deny our lusts” and to “give up sin” and on and on and on.  What this actually does is focus on the negative in the situation. It does not give hope for change, it does not tell someone how to do this. It just bombards our minds with fear–fear that it is too much, fear that we will lack something or miss something, fear of foregoing what is easy in favor of what is right.

But I submit that we need to preach positive messages from the pulpits and platforms across the US. The secret behind the secret is that as you fill your heart with positive messages and encouragement, the other bad things (sin, fear, regret, slothfulness, etc.) all seem to fade away because they are replaced with better, more palpable feelings. It is still early in my development of this secret in my life, but expect more great things to come from these pages.