Giving and growing rich is an inside job. It starts with giving to ourselves.

Doing the work for this book and researching and creating programs for this topic gave me the opportunity to work hard on mending and fixing my own relationships. I had to learn to give in areas of my life that were suffering. I had to look deep within to find my internal flaws so that I could be a better giver.

What I discovered was that my relationship with myself has everything to do with the relationships that I keep with others.

When I’m feeling good about me, I see good in others. When I doubt myself, I doubt others. When I am feeling that others are not contributing enough to my life, I realize that the root of the problem is that I am not contributing enough to theirs.

The root of everything is found in our relationship with ourselves. In doing the work to nurture a better relationship with myself, my family problems vanished. Yes, I was the problem the whole time, but I was also the solution.

People ask me often how they can balance their time between their personal and professional needs, to make more time for themselves.  I address this question in my October 2011 Leadership Tip, Time To Get A Life