Results Through Relationships
ARE YOU MY FRIEND

How would you feel if you got home and found an alien from another galaxy in your house? Would you be afraid it would take your possessions or hurt you and your family? Such thinking reflects an attitude of scarcity - there isn't enough for everyone so get yours before I get mine. On the other hand, would you trust the alien? Would you be excited to meet a creature from a different world who could show us better ways? That response grows from an attitude of abundance - the more we share, the more everyone will have. Too often, we treat people who look differently, act differently, or hold different beliefs as if they were aliens. Your colleagues, spouse, family and friends may look like aliens at times. If you're Republican, Democrats look like aliens - or vice versa.

Each of us must answer the question: Is the world a friendly place? Those who answer YES will deal with "different" people one way, while those who say NO will deal with them in another way. In an attitude of abundance, the initial response to "different" people and ideas would be trust instead of fear and rejection. We could believe the government is friendly, our family members are friendly, strangers are friendly, and any aliens we meet will be friendly too. We could assume such aliens will treat us with kindness - after all, wouldn't you treat them that way?

An attitude of abundance may seem naive since it might leave you open to pain and loss. But my experience with an attitude of abundance hasn't been that at all. People often surprise me with their unique perspectives and generous hearts. When it appeared that someone tried to harm me or exploit my generosity, it usually was because they worried about scarcity and focused on getting things for themselves. Even in the rare times that someone knowingly violated my trust to achieve personal gain, I didn't feel like I lost. I'm happy that (s)he achieved their goals and sad for the world because, if we had both won, the world's score would be twice as high. Our collective score is running very low these days. Maybe we should focus abundance thinking on the aliens we live with every day - even the Democrats (or Republicans).