by Amanda van der Gulik
We are always told that 'giving' is a good thing to do but we are not really ever given a reason why it is. Why should we help others, especially when they will most likely never help us?
And what on Earth has 'giving' got to do with Teaching Children About Money?
I'm going to answer those very questions right here, in just a moment, but first I have a very special gift for you....
Actually I have 7 very special Gifts for you, just click here to check them out right now and grab them before you forget, and then come back and read the rest to find out the answers to those two very good questions. (YES , they are all yours for FREE!!!)
Okay, now that you've collected your 7 free gifts (if you haven't, quickly go and do that right now, so you don't forget, and miss out), let's address the first question first:
"Why should we help others, especially when they will most likely never help us?"
You've probably heard the old saying, "Do unto others as you would have done unto you."
Right?
Well, why?
I'm sure you will agree that the idea is a great one...do nice things to other people that you wish they would do to you. Right?
But how do you know that by doing that, they will do nice things to you?
The plain, cold answer is....
YOU DON'T!
So then why on Earth should we do nice things for them?
That answer is....
...because, quite honestly, by being nice to others, helping them, we are actually...
HELPING OURSELVES FIRST!
And that's a VERY GOOD thing!
It really, truly is!
If you were raised anything like I was, you were probably taught to take care of everyone else before you take care of yourself, that somehow, you should come last.
And how did that work out for you?
Is that what you truly want to pass on to your kids?
And if so, how will that affect them?
I'll tell you...it will most likely make their lives miserable!
Too honest for you?
Guess, not, you're still here... And that's a very good thing indeed.
Okay, so let's take a look at how it all really works. What actually happens when you help someone?
It makes YOU feel good first!
Think about it...when someone helps you, how does that make you feel?
You're probably thinking, it makes you feel honoured, grateful, right?
And I'm not saying that's not true...but think about it, how does it REALLY make you feel?
Like you WISH you were the one helping them instead, right?
Let's be totally honest here. We LOVE helping others, and feel naturally uncomfortable getting help and especially ASKING for help.
Am I right?
But don't worry, that's actually a VERY GOOD thing!!!
You see if you help someone, and THEY feel that they would rather be the helpers, then when they can...they'll be even more likely to be there to help someone else who needs it even more than they did.
Do you see what's happening here?
It's a very good cycle.
And if you take a step even further...now you can see that if they cycle is a very good one, then that cycle needs you to not only be the HELPER but be the HELPED.
Are you seeing what I'm getting at here?
That it's TOTALLY okay to ask for help! It's actually mandatory! By asking for help you are actually giving someone else the opportunity to feel good about themselves.
Cool right?
It's all about find that right balance between helping others, and allowing yourself to ask for help too.
Just think of all the people in the past who have wanted to help you, but couldn't because you weren't ready to ask, and they never got to feel good about themselves because of that....not to mention that you probably found yourself stuck a lot of the time in your life simply because you wouldn't bring yourself to the point of actually asking for help!
Okay, so now that we've figured out why it's a very good thing to help...and be helped, because of the wonderful, positive, forward-moving cycle it creates...it's time to figure out the answer to our second question:
"What on Earth has 'giving' got to do with Teaching Children About Money?"
Well let's think about it.
What is money?
It's just a piece of material that we exchange with each other for products or services that that we each provide.
Right?
So, based on that concept of money alone...
We can safely say, that the ONLY way we can ever earn money, is by helping, giving of ourselves to others.
Right?
We are giving others our time, our creativity, our effort, etc.
Others are giving us the same right back.
If we don't teach our children about 'giving' and the importance of giving...and receiving, then we are doing them a very great disservice indeed!
Your child will sooner or later, need to figure out what it is that they have that they can give away to others in order to earn the money they need to survive, and thrive.
And yes, we are not taught to think about money in this way, this may be a totally new way to think about it...but either way, it is 100% true. The ONLY way you EVER earn any money AT ALL...is when you give something in return for it.
So the trick is to figure out what unique, natural talent or passion it is that your child has that they can give to the world and be handsomely compensated for that in return.
If your child only ever wishes to give away their time...then first of all..they lose their time...but secondly they lose the incredible opportunity to find what makes them the most happy, what they can give away to others that brings them joy.
Maybe they love to sing, and give away their beautiful voice in song, and get paid for their music....maybe they love to garden, love the feel of the earth on their fingers, and give away their effort to make other peoples' gardens beautiful and earn their money that way.
But once they realize what they are doing, that they are giving, and receiving, then they will find that they are indeed a master of their own destiny.
And THAT'S the best gift giving will ever give back to them!
My mom used to say to me, "Be nice to people, even if they're not nice to you, it will come back to you 100 fold, maybe not from them, but from someone else. It will come back to you."
Very wise words indeed. I have lived my life by those words...and I have been so blessed to feel the rewards 100 fold back to me.
Like when I ended up in a coma and our whole town got together to help my family get through one of the hardest times of their lives, and also to be there to help me when I finally woke up and needed many many months of rehab and recovery. We couldn't have made it through without their love and support.
When asked, why everyone came in a heartbeat to help us, the answer always was, "well, Amanda would have been the first one to help me when I needed it."
100 fold!
And I didn't help them because they needed, but because I needed it. I needed to feel good about myself and then when it was my turn to need their help, they helped because they needed to feel good about themselves.
And that's okay. That's actually wonderful. That's a natural motivation to help others.
In the end it's the helping that matters, not why they are helping.
Remember that.
ALWAYS feel good about helping, even if you now understand in your soul that you are actually helping yourself more than you are helping them. By helping yourself feel better, guess what?
You will WANT to help even more people!
The cycle gets larger and larger. 100 fold become 1000 fold.
Here's to helping you. Here's to helping you feel good about helping others so that cycle can get bigger and bigger.
Together we grow.
And don't forget to ASK for help and to have FUN! :D
Cheers…Amanda van der Gulik…Excited Life Enthusiast! ;o)
P.S. The GIVER always gets more out of the giving than the RECEIVER...and that's a VERY GOOD thing...it's what motivated the cycle of giving to grow bigger and bigger every single day! The more we give, the more we help. The more we help, the more we are helped. It's a beautiful cycle.
Help me keep the cycle going and let me help you so you can go out and help even more people and then be helped even more yourself. Simply accept a special gift from me...
Actually I have 7 very special Gifts for you (all yours absolutely FREE of course!), just click here to check them out right now and grab them before you forget, and then come back and read the rest to find out the answers to two very good questions about why we need to keep giving and how by giving we are actually helping ourselves first...and that's a VERY GOOD THING!
Amanda uses story-telling to teach children and teens the fundamentals of cash so your kid will learn these in a fun and memorable way, without feeling like they're being TOLD what to do! Amanda has been a special guest on Radio Disney, featured in The Costco Connections Magazine both in Canada and the USA and on numerous parenting shows around the globe. For a short time, Amanda is giving away
7 FREE Gifts, including "50 Money Making Ideas for Children and Teens" and "Allowance Secrets: To Give or Not to Give?"
Visit www.TeachingChildrenAboutMoney.com, to grab your free gifts before they go away!
We are always told that 'giving' is a good thing to do but we are not really ever given a reason why it is. Why should we help others, especially when they will most likely never help us?
And what on Earth has 'giving' got to do with Teaching Children About Money?
I'm going to answer those very questions right here, in just a moment, but first I have a very special gift for you....
Actually I have 7 very special Gifts for you, just click here to check them out right now and grab them before you forget, and then come back and read the rest to find out the answers to those two very good questions. (YES , they are all yours for FREE!!!)
Okay, now that you've collected your 7 free gifts (if you haven't, quickly go and do that right now, so you don't forget, and miss out), let's address the first question first:
"Why should we help others, especially when they will most likely never help us?"
You've probably heard the old saying, "Do unto others as you would have done unto you."
Right?
Well, why?
I'm sure you will agree that the idea is a great one...do nice things to other people that you wish they would do to you. Right?
But how do you know that by doing that, they will do nice things to you?
The plain, cold answer is....
YOU DON'T!
So then why on Earth should we do nice things for them?
That answer is....
...because, quite honestly, by being nice to others, helping them, we are actually...
HELPING OURSELVES FIRST!
And that's a VERY GOOD thing!
It really, truly is!
If you were raised anything like I was, you were probably taught to take care of everyone else before you take care of yourself, that somehow, you should come last.
And how did that work out for you?
Is that what you truly want to pass on to your kids?
And if so, how will that affect them?
I'll tell you...it will most likely make their lives miserable!
Too honest for you?
Guess, not, you're still here... And that's a very good thing indeed.
Okay, so let's take a look at how it all really works. What actually happens when you help someone?
It makes YOU feel good first!
Think about it...when someone helps you, how does that make you feel?
You're probably thinking, it makes you feel honoured, grateful, right?
And I'm not saying that's not true...but think about it, how does it REALLY make you feel?
Like you WISH you were the one helping them instead, right?
Let's be totally honest here. We LOVE helping others, and feel naturally uncomfortable getting help and especially ASKING for help.
Am I right?
But don't worry, that's actually a VERY GOOD thing!!!
You see if you help someone, and THEY feel that they would rather be the helpers, then when they can...they'll be even more likely to be there to help someone else who needs it even more than they did.
Do you see what's happening here?
It's a very good cycle.
And if you take a step even further...now you can see that if they cycle is a very good one, then that cycle needs you to not only be the HELPER but be the HELPED.
Are you seeing what I'm getting at here?
That it's TOTALLY okay to ask for help! It's actually mandatory! By asking for help you are actually giving someone else the opportunity to feel good about themselves.
Cool right?
It's all about find that right balance between helping others, and allowing yourself to ask for help too.
Just think of all the people in the past who have wanted to help you, but couldn't because you weren't ready to ask, and they never got to feel good about themselves because of that....not to mention that you probably found yourself stuck a lot of the time in your life simply because you wouldn't bring yourself to the point of actually asking for help!
Okay, so now that we've figured out why it's a very good thing to help...and be helped, because of the wonderful, positive, forward-moving cycle it creates...it's time to figure out the answer to our second question:
"What on Earth has 'giving' got to do with Teaching Children About Money?"
Well let's think about it.
What is money?
It's just a piece of material that we exchange with each other for products or services that that we each provide.
Right?
So, based on that concept of money alone...
We can safely say, that the ONLY way we can ever earn money, is by helping, giving of ourselves to others.
Right?
We are giving others our time, our creativity, our effort, etc.
Others are giving us the same right back.
If we don't teach our children about 'giving' and the importance of giving...and receiving, then we are doing them a very great disservice indeed!
Your child will sooner or later, need to figure out what it is that they have that they can give away to others in order to earn the money they need to survive, and thrive.
And yes, we are not taught to think about money in this way, this may be a totally new way to think about it...but either way, it is 100% true. The ONLY way you EVER earn any money AT ALL...is when you give something in return for it.
So the trick is to figure out what unique, natural talent or passion it is that your child has that they can give to the world and be handsomely compensated for that in return.
If your child only ever wishes to give away their time...then first of all..they lose their time...but secondly they lose the incredible opportunity to find what makes them the most happy, what they can give away to others that brings them joy.
Maybe they love to sing, and give away their beautiful voice in song, and get paid for their music....maybe they love to garden, love the feel of the earth on their fingers, and give away their effort to make other peoples' gardens beautiful and earn their money that way.
But once they realize what they are doing, that they are giving, and receiving, then they will find that they are indeed a master of their own destiny.
And THAT'S the best gift giving will ever give back to them!
My mom used to say to me, "Be nice to people, even if they're not nice to you, it will come back to you 100 fold, maybe not from them, but from someone else. It will come back to you."
Very wise words indeed. I have lived my life by those words...and I have been so blessed to feel the rewards 100 fold back to me.
Like when I ended up in a coma and our whole town got together to help my family get through one of the hardest times of their lives, and also to be there to help me when I finally woke up and needed many many months of rehab and recovery. We couldn't have made it through without their love and support.
When asked, why everyone came in a heartbeat to help us, the answer always was, "well, Amanda would have been the first one to help me when I needed it."
100 fold!
And I didn't help them because they needed, but because I needed it. I needed to feel good about myself and then when it was my turn to need their help, they helped because they needed to feel good about themselves.
And that's okay. That's actually wonderful. That's a natural motivation to help others.
In the end it's the helping that matters, not why they are helping.
Remember that.
ALWAYS feel good about helping, even if you now understand in your soul that you are actually helping yourself more than you are helping them. By helping yourself feel better, guess what?
You will WANT to help even more people!
The cycle gets larger and larger. 100 fold become 1000 fold.
Here's to helping you. Here's to helping you feel good about helping others so that cycle can get bigger and bigger.
Together we grow.
And don't forget to ASK for help and to have FUN! :D
Cheers…Amanda van der Gulik…Excited Life Enthusiast! ;o)
P.S. The GIVER always gets more out of the giving than the RECEIVER...and that's a VERY GOOD thing...it's what motivated the cycle of giving to grow bigger and bigger every single day! The more we give, the more we help. The more we help, the more we are helped. It's a beautiful cycle.
Help me keep the cycle going and let me help you so you can go out and help even more people and then be helped even more yourself. Simply accept a special gift from me...
Actually I have 7 very special Gifts for you (all yours absolutely FREE of course!), just click here to check them out right now and grab them before you forget, and then come back and read the rest to find out the answers to two very good questions about why we need to keep giving and how by giving we are actually helping ourselves first...and that's a VERY GOOD THING!
Amanda uses story-telling to teach children and teens the fundamentals of cash so your kid will learn these in a fun and memorable way, without feeling like they're being TOLD what to do! Amanda has been a special guest on Radio Disney, featured in The Costco Connections Magazine both in Canada and the USA and on numerous parenting shows around the globe. For a short time, Amanda is giving away
7 FREE Gifts, including "50 Money Making Ideas for Children and Teens" and "Allowance Secrets: To Give or Not to Give?"
Visit www.TeachingChildrenAboutMoney.com, to grab your free gifts before they go away!
