Core Value Blog Post: “Our Standard is giving more than what is expected.”
For many, this core value can seem very simple when it comes to business. A person transacts with your company by purchasing a product or service, and that company tries to give that customer a little more value, more exceptional service, or a nicer environment than that person expects.
Today let’s focus on our personal lives and how giving more than what is expected can really be rewarding not just for the person receiving the extra from us but how it can actually help us live a happier life.
We all have relationships with others on this earth. Those relationships are as a parent, as a spouse, a son or daughter, a friend, etc. Within that relationship, there are certain expectations from the other person.
A daughter, for example, expects that a father will help her with her school homework, but if the father also takes his daughter out for ice cream after the homework is done just to celebrate being done with the homework that is giving to others, right? It also allows the dad to spend some extra time with his daughter in a happy place where she feels accomplished, which in turn rewards the dad by allowing him those special moments with his daughter.
A friendship has many expectations as well. As friends we expect each other to spend time with us, go out to eat or watch a movie with us and support us when we are having a bad day or need some help but what if as a friend we also went that extra mile and treated their family with respect and enthusiasm as well? Maybe we say hi to their mom when we are over instead of just walking by, and we also ask her how she is doing and compliment her on her cooking or help her do an income tax return. Either way, we have a friend that expected us to be a friend to them, but we have also extended that friendship to someone they love, and we have expanded our network of people that love us by simply giving more.
A person that goes to church expects to go there and pray and listen to the service and maybe even attend some of the fellowship events that the church might offer but what if that church gave just a little more to its people? My church, for example, does free blood pressure screening, provides free counseling, and is a fantastic Fish Fry every Friday for the next six weeks. They are giving me more than what I expect, and because of it, I feel happy going there. It also makes me want to share my church with others, so giving more to me has a reward for the church with a potential referral from me.
Of course, these are simple examples of how giving more in a relationship can have great rewards for the giver, not just the receiver and that might be easy to understand for some, but the real lesson here is that the real principle that exists here is being ok with giving more into a relationship then what you receive. It is a challenging thing to do sometimes. Being a better friend then the friend is to you, being a better sister than your sister is to you or being a better role model than the role models can be hard. We often think it might not be fair, or they don’t deserve us, but the reality is that when we give more than what is expected, and we just give without expecting anything in return, we often find times that we do receive it back somehow. Maybe not today or next year and perhaps not at all from them, but the universe keeps track of our giving and pays us back somewhere, BELIEVE that!
Keep praying for others, keep helping others, and keep loving others. They might not help you back, love you back, or even pray for you, but God and the universe will pay you back, you just have to believe and keep going. The worst that can happen is you learn how to be disciplined, not a bad skill to attain.
Enjoy your week and give someone more than they expect! Not just today or this week, but always, it’s good for you!
