Preparing for Your Blessings
This blog post is inspired by a TikTok video created by @notwildin. Click here to check it out. It is worth the watch!
Before I get into this topic, I need to explain some old TikTok drama.
Keith Lee is a former MMA fighter turned food reviewer on Tiktok. He does a compelling job authentically reviewing food. He’s fun to watch and has a lot of followers. When a restaurant gets a good review, they are blessed with the “Keith Lee Effect” where thousands of new customers will be lining up the next day to try the food.
A little while ago, Keith Lee visited a food truck and the spot was a total vibe. There were people chillin’ and there was also a barber and a hair braider nearby. Keith Lee enjoyed the food and went and tipped the food truck owner $4,000. He said that $2,000 was for her and that the remaining $2,000 was for the braider and the barber.
A few days later, it came out that the braider and the barber did not get their money. So, upset by the implicit greed of the situation the fans decided to boycott the food truck.
By keeping they $2,000, this owner lost so much more in goodwill, long-term customers and profits.
They could not trust and believe that good was coming. They were not prepared for their blessings.
What can we learn from this?
I think it’s easy to say that the owner was greedy. But the true source of greed is fear. Fear of losing, of not having enough. This owner was too scared to part with the money in hand and surrender to faith that something better was coming their way.
Side note: I recognize that I have a very charmed and privileged life. Things always work out for the best for me, eventually. I don’t know if that is true for everyone else. But it is true for me, and this is how it has shaped my views on this matter. (Feel free to reach out and correct me if you disagree).
Preparing for your blessings requires bravery.
Not death-defying feats of bravery. I mean day-to-day bravery.
Bravery is holding fast to your integrity and being willing to be vulnerable.
· Willing to be $2000 poorer to do the right thing.
· Willing to share your profits with others to invest in the future.
· Willing to be your authentic self with your partner, your friends, your colleagues, your acquaintances to foster meaningful connection.
· Willing to break your golden handcuffs to find your true calling.
· Willing to go for something you really want but risk disappointment.
· Willing to be bad at something so that you can grow with humility.
Trust and faith have to outweigh fear. If they don’t, you act in fear.
When you act in fear, you are not honoring your core self and values.
When you do not honor your core self and values, you are not genuine in your actions and integrity.
When you are not genuine in your actions and integrity, you repel what is truly compatible with you.
And that’s the true definition of blessings: people, events, and things that are in your life that are compatible with how you want to live and that support your happiness, growth, and fulfillment.
Blessings aren’t test results
I don’t like framing the food truck story or the other examples I provided as tests from the universe where you pass and get blessed and fail and are punished.
Instead, I think of these as situations that require bravery as an opportunity to establish who you are as a human being and then getting redirection or reinforcement for that choice. It’s a subtle difference, but it is still important.
In my experience, when I intentionally choose to be open-hearted, generous, kind, vulnerable, authentic, even when it’s difficult, I have gotten to some wonderful outcomes.
However, there are at least 400 people in the world who have chosen to be exploitative, cruel, thieving, and insincere and they are all billionaires, so that seems to be working for them too.
The real lesson is that you have to reconcile who you want to be with the person you are today. Once you start acting in line with your aspirations, you will be ready to receive your blessings, whatever they may be.
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Have you chosen bravery and then been blessed? Or do you think this is bullshit? Either way, I’d love to hear about it.
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