When in doubt, be generous The biggest secret to success

When in doubt, be generous The biggest secret to successWhen in doubt, be generous The biggest secret to successWell, today is the day where we wrap up this 10-part series. Have you enjoyed it? I sure hope so. Ive had a blast sharing all this stuff with you.And if you havent checked out Michael Hyatts5 Days to Your Best Year Ever, it has been a sort of unofficial sponsor of this series. Its the best goal-setting program Ive ever done, and this is my third year going through it.I highly recommend it.Click here to learn how to have your best year ever.All right, on with the final lessonLesson 10 Be generousDo you know what the biggest secret to a successful life is?Be generous.Its so simple and yet so easy to ignore. Heres whyWe think that being generous is something we do once we get famous. And thats not how it works at all.A friend of mine just shared thisAnytime I start getting scared of running out of something, I give away something. I have more than enough love, money, work, fri endship, food, time, and energy to share. Always.I agree. The secret to getting more is to give more. The most successful people I know are not hoarders. Quite the opposite, in fact. And heres my belief on thatSuccessful people are not generous because theyre successful. Theyre successful because theyre generous.Certainly, you run across your occasional Scrooges. But in my experience, those people are the exception, not the norm. Thats just what Ive seen in my whole life, so Im not speaking for everyone, obviously.But thats enough experience to convince me of an important lessonWhen in doubt, be generous.When you have an opportunity to get versus give, go ahead and give.Generosity as a growth strategyI remember starting my blog back in 2010. It wasnt growing, people werent reading, and I wasnt having fun.So I decided to shift something. Realizing I wasnt doing my best work, I decided to do the opposite. I was afraid that if I gave away my best writing on my blog, no one would want t o pay me for my best work. But that kind of scarcity thinking wasnt really working. So I made one simple shiftI decided to start giving away my best work for free.Heres what happens when you do that. Two things, actually1. People start to notice when you give your best work away for free.Why? Because its generous. It makes people think, She gave me all this for free? Wow.Not only that, they trust you even more, believing that paying you would bring even greater value.Which brings me to point 22. You do better work.Look. You dont have a ceiling on what youre capable of. You can keep improving.When I started giving away A+ content on my blog, I started writing better content. When the time came to write a book, I was a much better writer.As you give your work away, your capacity to do better work increases. It has to.So thats the simple short lesson here todayDo your best work for free right now. Give it all away. Jeff GoinsBut wait a second, Jeff, dont you say to never work for free? Thats right. InReal Artists Dont Starve, one of the rules is just that. Dont work for free.But heres the catchYou need to always work for something, and that something doesnt have to be money.When you share a photo on Instagram, you are practicing in public. You are putting your work on display for people to see. You arent working for free. Youre earning peoples attention.The same principle applies when you write on your blog for free. Youre working for email subscribers (or at least, you should be).So, yes. Value your work. But always be generous with it. Give it away in the places where people will pay attention to you.That doesnt mean you have to give all your work away or that you cant charge for what you do at the same time. It just means that when in doubt, its almost always a good rule to be generous.Why?Because, as my friend said, it sets you free from fear. It makes you a better person.Generosity sets you free from fear. Jeff GoinsSo, pay for that friends lunch today when y ou both awkwardly look at the check. Spend some that extra bit of time (in spite of feeling busy) with someone who is hurting. Give it all away.Ive always loved this Annie Dillard quote. Its about writing, but really, I think it applies to any of us who have a gift to share with the world spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book or for another book give it, give it all, give it now. The impulse to save something good for a better place later is the signal to spend it now. Something more will arise for later, something better. These things fill from behind, from beneath, like well water. Similarly, the impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is not only shameful, it is destructive. Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes.And when you feel fear telling you this is not a good idea, remember thats what fear does. It tries to kee p you quiet. Anything you hold on to eventually turns to dust.So, what are you going to give away today?Thisarticlefirst appeared on Goins, Writer. You can listen to the audio version of this lessonhere.