Humility & Abundance

Lately, my business hasn’t been as abundant as it was around December and January last year.

It’s not like I’m doing bad, I still have a fantastic income, and don’t have to worry about what something costs.

However, around the end of last year, I was making about 3-4x what I’m currently making.

So naturally, it makes me go, “Hey what’s going on here?”

It’s not like anything really changed in terms of my output effort…

Just seems like everything has slowed down.

This is pretty humbling because when you’re winning, you’re on top of the world…

But when you see that season dry up, you start to realize, “Oh maybe this influx of success was like 20% me, and 80% something I can’t explain.”

So the other day I’m driving home from the gym reflecting on my life, my business, and the different lessons I’ve been embodying lately…

And all of a sudden a download from up above hits me.

“Are you understanding my lessons?”

“Yes.”

“Up until now, you’ve only been able to listen to me when you’re not in abundance. When you start to flow into abundance, you don’t listen to anyone, you know everything. Until you learn how to humble yourself during abundance, I have to continue to bring you down to lack or scarcity so you’ll actually listen.”

Woah.

I hit the brakes and just paused to reflect on that point.

“Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

Fast forward to Sunday last week, I’m in the church, wondering what the sermon today is going to be about.

There’s about 45 minutes of these beautiful orthodox chants, and an extremely coordinated ceremony with the father of the church and the different people around him, I’m assuming they’re the bishops and priests, not sure though.

Then the father comes out to give his sermon…

And of course, it’s about humility and how God wants us to come to him humbly.

When they say, the lord works in mysterious ways, I think this is what they’re getting at.

The service lined up perfectly with what I needed to hear.

So yesterday, I met up with the father outside of Sunday Service, we do this once a week just so I can ask him questions about the faith and to better understand the Orthodox path.

I shared with him the message I got earlier in the week and asked him…

“How do I become more humble during abundance?”

He responded, “By addressing your sins and your flaws.”

“Ok, that makes sense…what I don’t understand though is what you said during the service, why does God want us to say we’re not worthy? If he’s a part of us, doesn’t that mean we’re worthy of his love, forgiveness, and acceptance?”

The father paused for a moment to figure out how to articulate his answer in english…

“It’s a fine line. The Orthodox path is a narrow road, it’s not a highway to heaven.”

I burst out laughing at that, such a perfect response.

He continued, “It’s about not feeling like you’re entitled to his blessings, and when his blessings do come, are you thanking him? Are you praising him? Or are you acting as if you deserve it?”

“Hmm…”

“I can understand it’s difficult in business because you need to present yourself as confident to yourself and others, but look at your business 6 months ago versus now. Has anything really changed about the business?”

“No.”

“Only one thing has changed, and that’s what’s been given to you.”

I’m not sure how this guy makes so much sense, and how he lines it up so perfectly with faith, it’s almost like he does this for a living or something.

But this made a lot of sense to me…

I get so caught up in winning that I don’t really take time to express gratitude for what even helped me win in the first place.

I think if you were to take what the father said, “by addressing your sins and your flaws” you could translate that to, “by realizing you’re not everything you could be and you know it.”

And that especially applies in business.

Even though you’re raking in tons of dough, there are probably areas of your business you’re neglecting.

Just like how in life, even though you’re raking in tons of blessings, there are probably areas of your life you’re neglecting.

And up until now, that’s been gratitude for me.

So at this point in my journey, I’m doubling down on that side of things.

Giving extreme praise and thanks for what I have, and whenever anything does to me…

Continuing to praise that which has given me everything, including my health.