By Obi Okere

The other day I was coming from a social event where I collected a plate of food to take home with me. It was a fresh plate of jerked chicken (one of my favorites), and I was looking forward to eating it the following day.

While I was walking, I spotted on the sidewalk a homeless man who smiled at everyone who passed and made requests for someone to buy him some food to eat. As I neared him, I decided to offer him my food, which he accepted with a wide-grinned thank you. As I did this, I noticed how powerful I felt and why I enjoy being generous and doing intentional acts of kindness.

Being generous in some way is one of the easiest ways to add more power and energy to one's life. As a college student, I took physics and one of the most interesting things that I learned was the law of thermodynamics. This law states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed. It can only flow from one place to another. Generosity not only can add energy to other people, but it also adds energy to oneself. Many times people don't have energy to add to their personal power because they don't let energy flow through them through generosity.

I have found that there are two types of people, takers and makers. Takers feel that there is a limited supply of opportunity, money, and resources in the world. This is why they feel the need to take, grab, and consume everything they can to fill their own needs.

Makers believe that there is plenty of everything to go around for everyone. They also believe that there is always more money to be made, more resources to be discovered, and additional opportunities to be pursued. Makers have more power in their lives. As a result, they have more money, more opportunities, and more resources available to them.

Are you a taker or a maker?

The following are my top 4 ways to add more power into your life:

1. See the bigger picture. Take your eyes off yourself and find people you can help. Be creative in finding ways that you can help them.

2. Serve others. Learning to be a servant to others strengthens your generosity muscle. Find ways that you can serve your community, your church, or place where you see a need.