Ways to distinguish yourself – #71 Expand your capacity to receive help!

posted in Distinguish, General on by

I have always believed and continue to believe that we have more help than we require at any point in our life. Whenever I say that during a talk, half the people nod in agreement and the other half give me a skeptical look. While I believe in everything I said, I also want to add that you should have the capacity to receive help that is provided.

Let’s take an example. You are a software professional and you are good at what you are doing. Plus you have two other interests – public speaking and chess. You are passionate about both these hobbies and everyone in your office and their families know about them 🙂 One of your colleagues was in a book fair and finds a set of great chess books being sold for a song and he remembers you and buys them for you. You are glad and thank your colleague for the thoughtful gift. It was obvious that this would not have happened unless you had interest in chess and your colleague knew about your interest in chess.

If you can resist the temptation to look at this example literally, you will see that there are many situations in your own life where people around you may have the capacity to help but you may not have the capacity to receive it. Remember the law of the bucket and the glass?

Rather than complaining that everyone is selfish and nobody wants to help, should we not focus on exapanding the capacity to receive help?