MKMMA Week 6: Transactions

About a week ago, while doing my daily reading of the Blueprint Builder, I felt the end of the first sentence in the Fifth paragraph jump off the page and grab me:

…I will engage in no transaction
which does not benefit all whom it affects.

Since then, that sentence has whispered itself in my ear several times each day, so much so that by the third day, I knew it would be the topic of my next blog post.

I had read that sentence every day for a month before it jumped out at me. What gave it legs was probably the Give No Opinions exercise that had been introduced about 4 days prior to the first leap.

My first aha about that sentence was that I had defined the word transaction WAY too narrowly. I thought it meant only “the action of conducting business; an instance of buying or selling something; a business deal.” A dictionary search revealed this additional definition: “an exchange or interaction between people.”

My MKMMA-enhanced mind-stretching skills then produced the next aha: The words “an exchange or interaction” mean ANY and EVERY TYPE OF exchange and interaction.

Wondering how else the dictionary might enlighten me, I then looked up four more definitions:

Exchange (noun): the act of giving or taking one thing in return for another

Interaction: mutual or reciprocal action or influence; the act of talking or doing things with other people

Benefit (verb): to be useful, helpful, or profitable to someone or something

Affect (verb): to produce an effect upon; to act upon or to produce a material influence upon or alteration in a person or in a person’s mind or feelings so as to produce a response

Next aha: When we express an opinion, that’s a transaction! And unless we’re an expert on the topic of our opinion AND we’ve been ASKED for our opinion, there’s a very good chance that it will not benefit all whom it [our opinion] affects; i.e., people who hear or read our opinion directly or indirectly (second-hand).

And (I’m LOVING these ahas!)…..By practicing giving no opinions, we’re using the powerful Law of Practice to help us get perfect at engaging “in no transaction which does not benefit all whom it affects.”

I am profoundly grateful for these insights! This is how I imagine my grateful heart looks like: