Since you are reading this, I’m confident that you are looking to improve your position in this crazy thing called life. I would guess that you are looking to learn more and improve your business and life skills. We may share that trait, and I suspect this quest for knowledge may not be new to you.
We are all on a journey, and we may be using some sort of self-determined scale to pinpoint where we are in our journey. Often people tell me they’re not at the point they’d like to be at. This could be caused by setbacks in life or maybe an illness or other incident. It could also be caused by society and social media comparisons, which never bodes well for anyone! It could also be the fact that we often overestimate what we can accomplish in 1 year and severely under-estimate what we can achieve over many years. Do yourself a favor and give yourself a break. We are often our own biggest critics.
Are there people you can help along the way? Ab-so-lutely! You see, no matter where we are in our journey, there is somebody out there who looks at you with respect, awe, or some level of envy. It’s the old saying that if I were to put my problems into a pile and look at everyone else’s problems also in a pile, I’ll definitely keep my own pile! There is always someone out there who we can help, someone who perhaps could use a lift.
What do you do to give back? There are so many things, both monetary and non-monetary. A good friend of mine sponsors a child overseas, which is great; what else can we do closer to home? Do you overpay the neighbor’s kid to cut your grass? In recent years, I’ve enjoyed yard work (ask my business partners about a recent weed killer smuggling mission. Three guys from Nebraska, Florida and Canada walk into a hardware store in a snowstorm to buy weed killer … we’ll save that for another time). Do you volunteer your time at a charity? Do you write a check instead of investing your time? Do you spend time and share your wisdom? Everyone has choices, I’m sure we all do these on some individual level.
I have been fortunate knowing some people in my life who have shared a great gift, their wisdom. It turns wisdom is the best gift they could ever give. As time passed and their stories, insight, and lessons accumulated somewhere along the way, I too had gained some level of knowledge, perhaps even wisdom. As my years have passed and life experiences accumulated, I have been reminded when I followed their suggestions, life went better. When I chose not to follow their wisdom, well, I sometimes later wished I had.
What can you do to give back? A few of the offerings I do include contributing free content to an online training community, overpaying the neighbor’s kid to help around my house, and over-tipping anyone who takes pride in their work. I have also continued the tradition more, of course, or passing the torch by offering some stories and wisdom, just like others had to me. You see, the money will get spent, and knowledge, life skills, and wisdom tend to grow and will pay dividends over time. And yes, dividends is an example of lessons I learned from an old friend. He is much older and wiser than me, but I think the wisdom gap is narrowing.
What do you do? You’d be surprised how many people out there could gain from your offering.
How do you plan on giving back? Send me an email or post on our Facebook page, to let us know!