Giving is the philosophy of life, and receiving is the process of life. To be a Giver, you first have to be a Receiver, for simply, you cannot give unless you receive.
Giving needs an abundant heart, and receiving a great attitude. While giving is a heart-based response, receiving is a mental approach to life. In a way, a well coordinated giving and receiving approach bring about harmony between the head and the heart.
Being a taker is essential for success, for only when we get, can we give. The crucial aspect is what to receive and why it takes a great attitude. Human beings are in a way condemned to think ‘I know’, which blocks inputs, leading to delusion and a sense of stagnation. Receiving is about being humble enough to understand that there is so much ‘I don’t know’, thereby paving the way for a more refined thought process and way of living.
Receiving can be fascinating, as given our nature, we process knowledge or information in our own way, infuse it with our perspectives and pass it on with some unique flavours. As this dynamic develops and travels through many more minds, it may build into something larger and deeper than from where it originally emanated. This ‘travel’ can go through multiple variations of misinterpretation, creativity, clarification, correction, and expansion. Within this process lies the foundation of human creativity, complexity, and the source of conflict too.
While healthy conflicts lie at the heart of life’s evolutionary system, the way to minimise unhealthy conflicts is to receive without bias, apply our own judgement and form open ended opinions, which can change and adapt to a new way of thinking. Attachment to what we know is potentially detrimental to self-progress.
Humans need excitement to keep moving through the web of life, and being a good receiver is at the heart of this aspect. Receiving can be of various types: information, knowledge, goodness, advice, feedback. Each has its value and is a potential source of enrichment and excitement. Put in another way, receiving is about learning. Being a good receiver makes you a better learner, which is the foundation of sustained success and staying relevant.
Receiving in a way is also a skill. It needs practice. It can get boring, and therefore needs commitment. It forms the core of our habits system. The power we carry is that we can choose what to receive and how much to receive.
Giving and Receiving form a coordinated cycle. As they say, what goes around, comes around. So, we can choose what to release from our accumulated kitty. We have the power to discriminate and filter what we have received. We can step away from receiving something that does not appeal to us, and even empower what we want to share by embellishing it with our own thought colours.
Receiving makes life meaningful and substantial. It deepens our bond with life and the connections it throws up.
So, never forget to Be A Good As Well As Skilful Receiver!
(Hariharan Iyer is a seasoned Motivational Speaker, Corporate Trainer and Author of multiple management books. His latest release is Off Stump – Life And Management Lessons From Cricket. He is the Founder-Creator of Hariharan’s School Of Success Education (HSSE) - www.thehsse.com. He is popularly referred to as The Enter-Trainer®. He can be reached on hariharan@thehsse.com).
