Dave Ramsey tells Lewis Howes that generosity is a character trait, not something you do. You can be generous with your time, attention, or money regardless of how much you have.
What does generous mean for people that feel like they're struggling to live their own lifestyle of going out with friends once a week or having a dinner every couple of weeks or just doing, you know, some basic activities to enjoy life beyond free activities. How does generosity look like for those individuals?
See, generous is not an action. Generous is a character quality. And like integrity, it's a character quality that you choose. You're not born with it. It's not. It's not installed. You have to say I am a generous person as a friend, as our friend James Clear says. He says our habits come from our identity. So change your identity and your habits will follow. Right. The whole essence of Atomic Habits, his best selling book and which is wonderful material and so the. But I am a generous person. Okay, now what does that mean? Yeah, there's obviously a money thing. That might mean I give 10% to my church. A tithe. That might mean I pick up the bill at dinner. It might mean I look across the room and someone's wearing military fatigues and I buy their lunch. It might. Or a policeman or a fireman or a nurse, you know, I'm in scrubs. I might. That. It might mean something that simple tactically. But it could mean I just opened the door for something.
Yeah, a generous heart.
It could mean. Because here's the thing, we all know the difference in a taker and a giver. We know the difference in selfless versus selfish. When you hang out with selfish people, you feel like you need to take a shower when you're done, you know. And when you hang out with selfless people, so I can just decide to do that. I don't have to have a lot of money. Because generous people are highly attractive. Not because they give you stuff, but they're highly attractive because they're they. And they're very seldom depressed. They almost always have a positive outlook. They don't have a scarcity mentality. They have an abundance mentality. And all of this is just a decision. I just, I'm gonna. Instead of being. But what happens is we become overwhelmed with the financial stress and we turn it in and we became navel gazers. Worried about me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me. Because I gotta take care of me, me, me, me, me, me. And if I don't take care of me, the lights get. And it doesn't take much margin to push all of that back as a decision and just say no, I'm gonna leave a tip. That's outlandish.
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