A boss who I used to work for used to say “No good deed goes unpunished”. It was a phase that came out of her mouth frequently and each and every time that I heard it, it made me cringe. I disliked everything about it. It felt so harsh and cold. I understood what she was saying, she felt like every time she was generous it would get turned around and she would somehow pay for it. I watched it happen multiple times, knowing the next words out of her mouth. I understood where she was coming from because it isn’t fun to be generous with time, energy or resources to have that generosity overlooked and sometimes used as ammunition. Having said that, I still disliked the phrase.

When I stopped working for her that phrase was one of the things that I was grateful that I wouldn’t hear again. Until one day, I did. I had provided a free resource to a group of people and one of the people threw absolute venom at me because they didn’t like the platform that the resources were held on. I have to admit, it stung for a moment and made me recoil. As I processed their anger, which was being directed at me for something that I didn’t do, I heard her words “no good deed goes unpunished” in my head. For a moment, I thought “I am done. I am done giving free things to people to have someone be nasty to me” and before the thought even finished playing out in my mind I caught myself. That wasn’t the answer. I don’t ever want to stop doing nice things for people. I simply want to focus on people who appreciate the nice things that are done for them.

Later in the day I was sitting outside doing some breathwork and I felt a release. I was curious about what energy I was releasing and heard “no good deed goes unpunished”. I smiled as I felt the energy leave my reality.