I love helping people. Genuinely, I really love it. But helping is a broad word. Helping may not mean the same thing to you as it does to me. The guy beside me may need twenty dollars to be helped while the lady sitting on the bench may just need a hug to be helped. This is what I think is beautiful about helping. Everyone helps in a different way and everyone needs to be helped differently. People ask me all the time what my hobby is: “Do you like to run?” “Do you like to read?” Do you like to cook?” While all of those are fun and I enjoy them, they do not give me true joy. When I see someone whose life was touched by another human that gives me joy.
I think a lot of people think too much about helping, just like myself in the beginning. For example, if a family needs $900 that month to pay rent because they had a medical emergency that month in which they used their rent money to pay for the medical needs, someone like myself a few years back would think “Oh, I can’t help that family I don’t have $900, all I have is $100,” and I walk away from the situation and don’t help that family because I think what I have isn’t enough. But in reality, if I gave my $100 I had, and someone just like me had only $150 to give, and so on so forth, sooner than later, with enough people’s help, we could all come together and help that family. Even if I was the only person to help that family with my $100, that is $100 that the family does not have to worry about now.
I learned that I loved giving and helping a few years back. It was when I realized that any contribution is better than no contribution. What if all you did today was try to help someone smile, such a simple task with such a powerful impact. But some people don’t like being helped, and we cannot let that discourage us because sometimes what we do doesn’t really help that person until later down the road. I have personal stories of something someone did for me years ago and now, years later it has benefited me and helped me. But we have to be sure not to let one negative person or situation stop us from helping others.
If you are looking for a hobby or a new activity to start, start helping. It will actually benefit you, it will make you a happier person and you will feel better. I love seeing people’s lives change for the better after they have been helped, whether myself or someone I don’t know helped them. I think the best part of it is seeing someone’s face when they are so surprised and utterly happy that someone cared enough to help them. I am thankful that I have a job where every day I come to work I have so many opportunities to help people and truly make a positive difference in their lives. I hope that I will always have a job where my sole responsibility is to make people happy and help them any way I can. How much better would the world be if we all joined together and decided that every day we would try to make a difference in at least one person’s life that day. You may not always get the results that you want when you want it, but I can assure you it is worth it in the end.
