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Last month, my friends and I met up at a local mall to watch a new spy movie. There, a supervillain tried to poison millions of people in order to expand her illegal business. There was also a politician allowed people to die because it will make him more popular.
By the end of the movie they both get their comeuppance: the evil supervillain dies from her own poison and the corrupt politician is in handcuffs, soon to be imprisoned for his crimes. If you’ve watched enough action movies, you’ll often notice that common trope. Villains get punished and heroes get rewarded. People get what they deserve. That’s the law of karma in action.
While karma comes from the Sanskrit word for “action”, it also refers to the spiritual law of cause and effect. Everything we do (and do NOT do) affects our lives. Good deeds bring good results, bad deeds bring bad results. While it all seems “obvious”, we tend to forget about how it affects literally everything we do and our negligence indirectly causes our own problems and failures.
Now how can we use the law of karma to become more successful? Keep reading to learn more.
How to Use The Law of Karma to Become More Successful
1. Relationships
One stormy day an old woman went into a department store to seek shelter. While most other sales staff ignored her, one of them was helpful enough to bring her a chair to sit on and later hail a taxi. The next day, Andrew Carnegie, one of the richest men in America at the time, called the store and ordered enough furniture to fill his castle in Scotland. As it turns out, the old woman was Andrew’s mother. He specifically asked for that salesman who helped his mom and he made sure that kind salesman received all the commissions from the sale.
This is one of the most common ways we notice the law of karma in our everyday lives. Treat others well and they’ll treat you well in return. Be rude and obnoxious to everyone you meet, don’t be surprised if they’re rude and obnoxious to you in return. While you won’t be rewarded for each and every good deed you do, by sheer laws of probability you likely will be rewarded with kindness in the future.
Take note, however, that this will not include “helping” by enabling abusers, like those who borrow money and never pay you back. You harm them by supporting their bad habits (wasting money), and you’ll receive harm in return (they’ll keep asking you for money).
You ALSO won’t receive good karma if you help people because you want something in return. That’s just being manipulative. You probably know people who only remember you when they want something. Those who smile and say nice things to you right before they ask you for a favor. You most likely avoid and reject them more often because of that. Help people because it’s the right thing to do. That’s how you make people like you more.
2. Health
You are what you eat. Literally. Rice, noodles, meats, vegetables, herbs, cheese, sugar, or anything else, everything you eat and drink when they get digested and the nutrients are absorbed, they become the building blocks of new cells all over your body. Blood, muscle, skin, and everything else including your BRAIN.
Now imagine you were building your own car. Would you ride one you built from rusty junk parts and cheap plastic, or one you made from high quality steel, glass, and other materials? If you don’t want to ride a car that’s made of junk, then why would you want your body to be made of junk as well?
Like I said before, karma affects EVERYTHING you do, like the stuff you eat and drink every day. Eat healthy food like lean meats, vegetables, and herbs in moderation and you get good health. Eat excessive amounts of junk and unhealthy food and you reap illnesses like diabetes, heart diseases, and more. Exercise and train to earn a strong body. Stay lazy and sedentary and your body becomes weak from lack of use.
3. Finances
Your paycheck is directly determined by the quality and value of the work that you do. It’s the reason why street sweepers don’t earn as much as a top surgeon, and why most employees in your office don’t get promoted as often as the hard working one.
One main value that Napoleon Hill taught was the habit of “going the extra mile.” If you do more and better work than what you’re paid to do, you will soon be paid for far more than what you do (just think of how much extra work great entrepreneurs do for their startups before their business takes off). While most of us would think that our employers are different, Hill explained that most people are similar in that they are somewhat greedy. If you are an excellent employee, the employer won’t want to lose you. If you receive an offer because other people noticed your talent, they’ll likely try to match it in order to keep you. If they don’t, you’ll find better opportunities when you search for more generous employers.
That’s not all. What you DO with the money you earn also affects your future. Are you wasting money on worthless junk and entertainment, or are you saving some of it to invest in assets that generate more income?
4. Future Opportunities
To most people, a job opening is just another job opening. For others, that job is a dream career.
To most people, the stock market is like a casino where they’ll lose money. To those who learned how to choose good companies and invest in them, the stock market is an excellent investment opportunity.
To most people, an empty lot is just an empty lot. For those who studied how to invest in real estate, that same lot can become an investment that’s worth millions of dollars in rental income.
You won’t find opportunities if you don’t know what they look like, and you won’t be able to use them well if you haven’t learned or prepared for them. All the opportunities you’ll ever find in life will come from what you’ve taught yourself to look for.
If you want to have more and better opportunities in your career, business, relationships and more, then you’ll need to plant the seeds for them. Like packing the things you need for a trip, you can do the same for the things you’ll need in the future, like investing for retirement, buying insurance, preparing for future problems at work (downsizing, retrenchment, etc.), and more.
5. Personal Achievement
Repetition is key to learning, so I’ll repeat it once more: everything you do and everything you DON’T do will affect your life. Similar to how you can choose to plant an apple seed but you can’t force it to turn into an orange tree, you can choose your actions but you cannot choose the consequences of your actions. Good things leads to more good, evil leads to more evil.
So how do you spend your time?
Do you waste it watching TV? Gossip with friends? Play video games all the time? Waste money? Gamble your paycheck away at the casino? Overspend and bury yourself in bad debt?
Or…
Do you spend your time planting the seeds of your future success? Do you continue educating and improving yourself? Save money and invest in assets? Spend more time with positive and loving friends and family? Help others?
It’s all up to you. You can choose what you do, but you cannot choose the consequences. Set goals and start doing the things that will bring you good results. That is, after all, what high achievers do.