In this episode I explore a lot of important concepts related to what I call your 'Fundamental Orientation'. Fundamental orientation relates to the basic way in which we choose to approach life. Many people spend their lives concerned about 'getting' as much as possible and then protecting whatever they have. This ultimately leads to stress and unhappiness and a deep sense of insecurity. In this podcast I make the point that no matter what you build in life it will eventually be taken from you. People spend their entire lives trying to construct meaning from things and from accumulating success or wealth without the deeper awareness that these things are going to eventually be stripped from them.

A different way to approach life is through the lens of what we can give. It is what I often call the 'modality of gift'. So many of the great figures of history have tended to fall into one of these categories. You have people like Hitler and you have people Mother Teresa. They both approached life (obviously0 in very different ways. One was the way of destruction through trying to dominate and take from others and the other was the path of gift. The results are very different.

In the smaller landscape of our own lives we also get to choose between these two paths and the choices are very real even if they don't seem as dramatic.

I also explore what happens when we focus on abundance and thanking others rather than staying self-absorbed. The results can be funny and very real as I share from a personal story.