The rickshaw stalled in the crowded street. And from nowhere the little girl was right beside me, hand out, waiting, smiling. This is an every time and everyday occurrence in India; and as a tourist you are a beacon in a sea of colour.
It’s smart, you are the most likely to give and you are more likely to give more than the locals. This little girl covered in street dirt and torn clothes is not doing what I ask you to consider when we work on your ideal client – the one who really gets what you uniquely do, and values the difference you can make to help them accomplish their goals.
No this is direct, transactional selling. She isn’t seeking meaning or loyalty, this is fast moving consumer goods (fmcg). I am the fast moving consumer. As soon as the lights turn green I am gone. She is not interested in alignment nor does she care about my values. She is after a one time result.
Foreigner equals easy pickings. The question is not will I deliver on this promise but how well?
This little girl is so practiced and skilled, she has no attachment to the outcome. She knows this is a numbers game. In a flash she scans the crowd. She intuitively picks her prey, much faster than I can avert my gaze. She discerns 1. who can most afford to give 2. can be most easily persuaded, and 3. is most likely to give the most.
As she stood in front of me I paused and without missing a beat in the tiny space between the chaos that is Indian traffic here she held my gaze as she flipped into performance mode. She turned cartwheels away from me and then a few backflips returned her to me. Such precision and skill. My whole body immediately broke into a smile and any irritation I felt just melted into admiration for her. She was a tiny thing no more than a gamine Irish 6 year old but more likely about 10. She was smiling broadly, hand extended, ready to claim her just reward. I happily handed her the full stash of that day’s cash I had ready for such moments and she skipped away, leaving me smiling in awe of her ingenuity and caught in the shame of my pause. Such a gift she had extended.
I had been raised to be respectful but not ‘encourage’ beggars by giving them money. When I lived in New York I would buy them food rather than cash: better to nourish them than feed their habit. Through years of spiritual practice I now look at homeless people and see they are just like me making their way through life with their own set of gifts and challenges, skills and vulnerabilities. We all have own stories to tell and many more we have yet to create. I give more freely and receive more gracefully (that part I realise was even more challenging for me).
I believe we are all in this together, each playing our part earning and learning our way through this adventure we call life.
This and other moments make me question: what stops us readily sharing what we have emotionally, intellectually and materially? Is it a belief there is a limited supply or there won’t be more? Is it a fear that we will be asked for more and more; be seen as a soft touch, maybe even foolish? Do we fear we won’t be able to replenish our resources, that we won’t have enough to meet our own needs? Do we fear we’ll break some taboo? And yet if we’ve survived and thrived this far, we have abundant evidence we’ve had enough and there was always more?
Contrarily what stops us receiving when others offer us gifts of experience, food, love, kindness, work, things, knowledge, opportunity, fun? Do we fear we have to reciprocate and don’t want the obligation? Or is it our fear that others see our vulnerability, that we lack something, that we are not enough? Do we fear the responsibility of such unfettered generosity, unconditional love?
Does our pride stop us from seeing that it’s a circle of needs where we are each in service of ourselves and others, each playing our part; giving and receiving.
Is it such a burden to acknowledge we all have people in our lives who take care of us. I know my life is filled with angels. You know who you are. I am consistently humbled by your generosity and love. Thank you.
Yogi Bhajan would state that your birthright is to be bountiful, beautiful and blissful. Can you allow ourselves to accept that this is possible?
Can you allow yourself to have what you say you really want?
Would that be too simple amidst all the challenges that will inevitably come? Each time I see that little girl in my mind’s eye; I smile. I can only imagine the challenges she faces. Yet all I felt from her was this lightness of spirit; this confidence in knowing she had me at hello. But then she cracked my mask. She met me where I was and teased me into her world.
She liberated my joy with her lightness. In those brief moments she reminded me there is beauty everywhere.
This liberation returns us to our essence. It is what allows your natural confidence and conviction in your unique value (cartwheels are optional 🙂 to shine through. It’s the change I see in my clients as they travel through my InsideOut Practice practice. Discover how it might help you gain clarity and own the results you deliver in your good work. Book a 20 minute free introductory call (no backflips and no obligation).
Sending you and that little girl love and lightness every day.
Until soon. Always love x
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