Why do we help others? There is a whole lot of pain and poverty, illness and despair in the world. I can't speak for you but I would like to make a difference and improve the quality of life for others. Volunteer work is a great way to begin.
No single person can change the entire world but you can have an impact on the lives of others in your own corner of the universe. That, in a small way, changes the world ever so slightly. Multiply that by a billion and it is a brave new world.
How many times have you heard people say " You can't change the world. You are just one person?" It begins with one. Forget all that nonsense the defeatists choose to fill there heads with. That's their business. The contents of your head is all that matters.
Your happiness counts. How can you share your happiness if you have none to share? You can't be happy if you put others happiness ahead of your own. You have to put yourself first in order to have the tools to affect change.
I don't know how many people I have met that speak of all the hungry people of the world living in poverty. And how they dream of helping them. These are people that are wallowing in consumer debt, the working poor, just inches away from bankruptcy. They want to help others when they cannot even dream of themselves living in prosperity. Such noble nonsense.
If you want to help your family, help your community or change the world, you have to help yourself first. You have to be selfish for pete's sake! It's not a sin or a crime to put yourself first. You have to lead by example. Nobody chooses to follow the disempowered.
Make your happiness and peace of mind your number one priority. Once you have that you have the power to really affect change. Helping others is a wonderful thing. Look at the global efforts to help the Tsunami victims and affected areas. You could rationalize it and say that helping is the right thing to do, that contributing to any good cause is the right thing to do. I agree.
But, we are not motivated by our intellect or rationalizations. It is emotion that moves us to act. Helping out makes us feel good and inversely we know that watching others suffer and not helping when we know we can will make us feel miserable. We don' t want to make ourselves unhappy.
If you can truly be honest with yourself you will see that beneath all the sentiment is a need to tend to our own happiness. I like to volunteer because it makes me feel good. That is the bottom line. The rest is just window-dressing. I have a selfish desire to feel good and so do you. There is nothing wrong with that.
Yoga, meditation and prayer make me feel good, too. Can you call those selfish pursuits? How about attending church or worshipping your higher power? Do those things make you feel good? Of course they do or you would not do them. If pursuing your own emotional well-being and feeling good is not what you would consider selfish, than I think that the term "selfish" is highly misunderstood.
Tend to your "self" first. Be selfish. Then and only then can you really make a difference.
David Parton
Helping others and myself Improve their income and boost their health and energy levels with Tahitian Noni Juice.
http://the_noni_blog.typepad.com/noni/
no-contract cleaning service Glenview ..Near the end of December 2004, I received an email... Read More
Several years, I was listening to a radio talk show... Read More
I will never forget an evening in 2003, when I... Read More
I'm a working mother with a preschooler, worrying about Mom... Read More
Ever had the sense that there is more to life... Read More
Do you know the problem with affirmations? You know, the... Read More
Sometimes we are in a position to look into the... Read More
Emotions are controlled by a combination of reason and action.... Read More
Peak Performance. It means being at the top of your... Read More
Being the next Carmen Electra or Paris Hilton might or... Read More
During these times of uncertainty in the outside world, look... Read More
One Friday in November, I began a journey from New... Read More
Clear Conflict with Forgiveness:Forgiveness is the means to solve all... Read More
You are already a winner, and so am I.Although you... Read More
Most of us carry on a running internal dialogue at... Read More
I loved Norman Vincent Peale's, Power of Positive Thinking as... Read More
As a trainer of coaches I often teach my students... Read More
The late Norman Vincent Peale was a controversial preacher who... Read More
Does the thought of failure send a cold shiver down... Read More
Positive thinking in this day and age is a tool... Read More
People with negative attitudes may wonder why they never achieve... Read More
So, do you love yourself?Shouldn't really be a difficult question... Read More
Ever witnessed an incident that needed to be reported to... Read More
Your response (reaction?) to change is conditioned by your entire... Read More
I have had many confidence issues in my life, all... Read More
house cleaning company Glencoe ..Our initial reaction when hitting a setback or a "roadblock,... Read More
Every emotion, wether we classify it as good or bad,... Read More
In the international bestseller, Blink, Malcolm Gladwell explains how researchers... Read More
I have studied the idea of changing thoughts to create... Read More
Have you ever thought about you have a lot to... Read More
Look for the positives!Seek them out - those little scary... Read More
One Friday in November, I began a journey from New... Read More
A more positive future, a happier life, a body that's... Read More
As a trainer of coaches I often teach my students... Read More
Spring is here at last! The season brings with it... Read More
Peak Performance. It means being at the top of your... Read More
How are you? Where do you get a positive attitude... Read More
This is the age of the Quick Fix - the... Read More
Are you the kind of person who dwells on your... Read More
A Yale University study a few years ago revealed that... Read More
This week I happened to catch a few minutes of... Read More
Life can be downright scary - sometimes more than others.... Read More
Imagine the what you could achieve if:You were 100 %... Read More
Everything exists twice. First, in your mind. Later, before you... Read More
Being a mom can take a toll on your body,... Read More
Are you a person who loves challenges, or hates them?... Read More
No one likes rejection. And yet it happens. Here's how... Read More
Why do we really need the experiences that we have... Read More
Looking around at our circumstances we may see only mountains... Read More
Ever had a problem with doubts? Ever felt that nagging... Read More
Positive Attitude Tips |