Less Is More Series Part V: Freely Give, Freely Receive

This is Part V in my new 5-part series on how less is more in different ways!

 

“Freely Give, Freely Receive”

 

This is the perfect proverb to end off this series.

 

Let me repeat that: “Freely Give, Freely Receive”. Doesn’t it sound lovely? Sure, it does.

 

Is this the norm today? No, definitely not.

 

In fact, it seems like an incredibly silly idea. Freely give? What would I get in return? Wouldn’t I be a fool to give and not get anything back for my efforts?

 

If the whole world lived for themselves, and only themselves, then we would be in big trouble. The multitudes living in desolation and poverty would double and triple, and continents would be wiped out. The Internet would be moot, because nothing would be for free anymore (yeah, these posts would cost you some serious dough). We would breed generations of selfish people. We would be in big trouble.

 

The thing is, what you “receive” is relative. If I gave money to a starving child in Africa, technically I wouldn’t receive any money back for my troubles. Why do people donate, then? There are many other ways that one “receives” back: the satisfaction of helping someone else, a sense of fulfilling one’s duty as a socially conscious human being, and so on. Such things are intangible, but equally important.

 

It’s not about the money, money, money.

 

Of course, if one does not give in the first place, one will never receive back anything at all.

 

But ultimately, the “receiving” is not the point. One has to learn to give first – and to do that, one has to let go of “me” and look at “others”. Less of me, more of you.

 

It is a huge challenge that goes contrary to human nature – its scary, and fear is inevitable. But imagine a world where everyone thinks for his or her neighbor. I believe that would be heaven in itself. Unfortunately, altruism is lacking in this day and age. And, more than ever, we need more of that in today’s society.

 

So, to sum up all the points in this series: Less of me, more of others. How to achieve this? We can start by doing these:

 

Less thinking, more doing.

 

Less following, more questioning.

 

Less for me, more for others.

 

Doing more with less.

 

What did you think of this series? Was it helpful to you? I’d love it if you could drop a comment here to let me know if you liked it or not.