Is Giving the Secret Shortcut to Wealth?

How can giving make you wealthier?

After all, you're saying goodbye to your hard earned money!

As always the truth is much more than it seems at first glance and there are a number of reasons why giving can unlock your wealth creation process. Let's dive in and look at how counter-intuitively giving can be a great boost to your success, health and happiness.

Do it smart

Before we move on let me just say I'm not encouraging you to give away all your money and belongings. The apqa app is here to help you achieve financial well-being and so we are pondering whether not to include a default 1% "give" default budget inside the app. And yes, 1% is a great start, especially if you're a multi millionaire, but if even if it's a few dollars that you can spare we highly encourage you to give it a shot for your own benefit. Here's why.

Mindset Shift

We all know how powerful our mindset is, our identity pretty much dictates what we can and should be doing every day. If you think you still have some scarcity mindset in you keep on reading.

"I don't have enough money for X. I will never be able to afford that dream…"

Sure enough it will become a self fulfilling prophecy, if you stick to those thoughts. As Earl Nightingale elegantly put it; You become what you think about. Unfortunately our idea of our status in life comes from our previous experiences, your family, friends, your previous jobs. We act mostly according to our past as if somehow it had the power to control our future!

Doesn't that sound absurd?? We need to wake up! The past is obviously gone. It does not exist. We are right now and we usually want to shift to a better spot in the future. This is very fortunate as it has fuelled growth and rising prosperity globally. Today we are rich as kings in ancient terms and those of us living in first world countries with our gadgets, cars and airplanes would probably be perceived as gods in ancient times. And yet, we often feel poor and miserable.

So what happens when we start giving? The answers are fascinating!

Goodbye Scarcity

Each time I give, I teach my brain, that I have enough for myself, but also that I have more than enough, as I am able to still help someone and have enough for myself. This is gigantic, as most people worry about next week, next month, next year.

"Will I have enough to support me and my close ones." They keep on drilling that thought into their head, as if through that question they could peer into the future. Usually they only make themselves more miserable.

/ Let's diverge just for a moment. If this unease about the future is your problem, start asking a different question: How can I help better and be of more service? It will radically shift your energy towards being more productive and helpful and the world is always in need of such people. /

Increased Self-Esteem

If you start giving your mind will start thinking that you're not poor, maybe even that you're better off than the person you're giving to. And as we said before, you become what you think about. Yet there is a growing body of work showing the positive impacts of charity and prosocial work on self-esteem. What's even more crazy, some research suggests, that a prosocial person is judged as more attractive and desirable romantic partner.

There's also a growing body of work on altruism, charitable behavior and helper's high. The positive effects seem to be vast, but we are still early in our findings.

Yet some things are quite undeniable and we don't need much science to acknowledge them. Come back to that situation when you last handed someone some money, or offered to buy food, or maybe you risked being injured to free a trapped animal or just offered some advice and guidance. How did it feel? Were you uplifted by the experience, if only for a moment?

What you give comes back. Usually multiplied, but usually in a different form than you expect.

Give more, Expect more

When searching for positive side-effects of giving the list that comes back is very long:

• Mental health- lower levels of depression and anxiety

• Increased Life Satisfaction- a sense of purpose and fulfillment derived from helping others

• Improved Physical Health- may include lower blood pressure, reduced stress levels, and even a potential increase in life expectancy

• Enhanced Social Connections- sense of connectedness contributes to overall well-being and is often cited as one of the key factors of longevity

• Increased Happiness- studies on happiness consistently show a correlation of people who engage in charitable activities or contribute to the welfare of others and reporting higher levels of happiness.

While most of the research focuses on the physiological and social effects of altruism, giving and prosocial behavior, proving a link between financial gain and altruism is much harder. There are many more factors at play and deriving a clear answer is very challenging. Some argue that there are gains based on improved networking, social bonds, increased trustworthiness and reputation, tax benefits, increased customer loyalty and others.

Finances

So how does all of this relate to your finances? By having a better opinion of yourself and feeling you are worth more you'll also ask more of the world around you. At the same time your increased asking price will be more justified by your higher social status, perceived value and trustworthiness.

From our perspective it's also hard to downplay the value of the mental, social and physical benefits of giving on your financial situation.

Obviously it is for now very hard to prove these points from a pure scientific perspective, but the number of research being poured into these topics is ever growing and the findings are hard to ignore.

Now what does all of this sum up to? To me these changes and effects build an amazing picture of the charitable, prosocial person. It's a picture of someone who has a good opinion of himself, is ready to go the extra mile for others, is highly regarded by others and lives a happier, more fulfilled life. Does this ring a bell? Does it sound like the person you aspire to be?

Good luck on your quest for a better now,
Tomasz