33. Act Like It Before You Are It (Repost)

My Wife and I have a rule when we go to restaurants. When the bill comes, we don’t look at the total amount owed or the list of items we ordered to make sure it’s correct. In fact, when the waiter / waitress comes by with the machine to take our payment, I hand over the bill and don’t look at the number at all. The only thing I look at in the payment process are the tip options on the machine. The only reason I look is because our rule is that we automatically tip the highest percentage option without exception. That’s the only decision that matters to us when it comes time to pay. We know the type of restaurant we’re in so we generally know how much we’re going to have to spend, so it’s certainly not as if we’re spending recklessly, it just means that we’re spending like the total dollar amount doesn’t matter to us.

The reason we do this is because for years, going out to eat was stressful. Throughout those years, we were making some changes to our career lives and financial organization for the purpose of living a healthier, more secure life. We were working towards a life where it truly doesn’t matter how much dinner costs because we know the money is there and we know more is coming in. We made remarkable progress, but going out to eat was still stressful. That is, until we made our rule. We wanted to live an abundant, prosperous and generous life, but we were skimpy on tips because of how much it cost. Being skimpy on tips isn’t very generous and it definitely does not exude abundance or affirm prosperity. A time came when we recognized this, so we made a decision to be generous, abundant and prosperous customers. The decision was surely made before it was true, but we knew who we wanted to be. From that day we started acting like it.