As a parent of 2 young children, I sometimes struggle to have my children doing what I want them to do. When we are late to get to school in the morning and I am trying to make them walk faster, they usually play up more. The more I try to convince them to move, the more stubborn they become. Eventually, it becomes a disastrous morning and they all start crying regardless of my frustration and desperate attempts.

One day, I stopped in a situation like this and started to be curious about it. Then I realised it was actually me who was creating the situation.

When we try to make others do what we want them to do because we think it is the right way, things do not happen easily. When we can see what the other person wants and focus on giving the experience fully, all of sudden, things move quickly, easily and joyfully.

Telling them we are going to be late for school so if they are not going to move faster, I would not give them the treat they like or I would not let them watch TV any more actually does not easily create the outcome I want. But when I can be there for them and listen to their feelings and finally inspire them to get to school for something fun and exciting, they even forget what they were upset about.

We can never waste our time listening to the people we love and care for. Saving time by forcing things to happen regardless of other people’s feelings often results in more delay and waste of energy. It could even cost our precious relationship a lot of distress. We do not have to choose a hard way!

As we see one small thing in life as a reflection of what is happening in the whole world, this adds one great insight to how we can together transform all our reality easily and joyfully. No more trying to convince others by our measure of right and wrong. Because there are always other perspectives people have. Our children show us how they feel in a clear way. But not everyone communicates so openly these days. When we try to force others to see what we think is right and miss out on the opportunity to learn their ideas and feelings, we are missing out on something more precious than the exact outcome we tried to create. And usually we all want the same outcome – we are just communicating it differently.

At Buy1GIVE1Free – B1G1, we see it is more important to be grateful in what we do each day than trying to change the world by fighting against obstacles.

We can all start this in our own day, just making sure that we feel grateful now. We can take responsibility for our own life first. This is the start of real effective giving life – giving ourselves the full attention we deserve first. And when we start to see what others want, we can create the outcome we all want together in a easy way.