Daily Inspiration 6-12-13

"If you contemplate the Golden Rule,

it turns out to be an injunction

to live by grace rather than

by what you think other people deserve."

 

-- Deepak Chopra

I have had money and I have been busted. I have had positive and negative cash flows. I have left people unpaid through times I don't want to repeat. I understand making poor financial decisions. I understand thinking it will be better than it actually is, and yet through it all, I consider myself a good person.

Some of my previous creditors may have other opinions. However, I have done the best I know how to do at the time under the circumstances I found myself in, and I always tried to pay them though their rules often would not allow it. I also have to admit frankly that my financial decisions and results were always a self-inflicted wound. Not fatal, certainly, but not pleasant either.

I know what it is like so in my own business, I do things differently than other creditors have done with me. I don't chase people down. Not because they don't owe the debt. Of course they do. It is all the fault of me learning the Golden Rule early on, reading the story of J. C. Penney and there was another story, and I cannot remember the source, of a chiropractor who at the end of each year, forgave selected debts and yet did not discard the debtor. That story has always stuck with me.

In the last five and a half years in business, we have forgiven a lot of money owed us for services already rendered. When people are earnestly trying to pay and they make efforts in that way, we let them, and even may help them achieve it. We all need help sometimes and most of us mean well and are sincere.

Other times, we have had people who blew us off, ignored any contact, and pretty much stiffed us. We forgave them too. I refuse to chase people via collection companies and all that. We give it a good go and then we let go.

The biggest reason we do this should be clear. It benefits us to let go of this and be done with it. It helps us to move forward instead of always looking behind. At the same time, it benefits the debtor though they may not ever acknowledge it. You could say that we are paying it forward and somewhere along the line it is paid to someone who benefits.

Time is short enough without worrying about the small stuff. Sometimes though we may think that because it is money, we should look at that differently, as if the Golden Rule doesn't apply. But, it does, doesn't it? Then again, the biggest reason we would practice the Golden Rule is for our own peace of mind, don't you think?


Forgiveness Is Self-Serving. I'm Okay With That.

Spread Some Joy Today--The Golden Rule still works when it is used.