“We rise by lifting others.” —Robert Ingersoll
Last night, I was frustrated and perplexed. Behind the scenes (and sometimes not so behind-the-scenes), the server status for Becoming Minimalist was causing me trouble. I had tried a number of technical solutions, but each of them were unsuccessful in solving the issue.
Finally, on Saturday night, I sent out a tweet looking for some help. An old friend I haven’t talked to in years responded with an idea. He kindly walked me through a 5-10 minute solution. I was unbelievably grateful. He saved me hours of work.
This isn’t the first time I have received help from somebody on Twitter.
I actually started using Twitter years ago. I opened an account late one evening after noticing a bunch of traffic to my website from the social network. I figured if that’s where people were hanging out, maybe I should too.
One of the first people I started following was Chris Guillebeau on a whim after somebody recommended that I follow him. At the time, Chris had an interesting habit. His first tweet every morning was, “Good morning. How can I help today?”
I responded twice—once to draw attention to a blog post that was resonating with people and once to ask for help promoting a new book.
Both times, Chris obliged. And I have never forgotten it. Even to this day, 6 years later, I still remember Chris as the guy who offered and provided so much help to me when I needed it.
Of course, help has come from the non-digital world as well.
Just last month, I had a significant conversation with a friend in Miami about something exciting we are working on for The Hope Effect. The conversation began when she made a simple statement, “I want to know if I can help in any way.” Since then, we have met every two weeks hammering out specific ways her talent can be of assistance to us.
My short encounter yesterday reminded me that my past is chock–full of men and women who have offered to help me in any number of ways—sometimes when I was in desperation and sometimes when I just needed a little encouragement. But almost all of them I remember well. People who help us happen to stick around in our memory (and affections) for quite awhile.
But the benefit of helping others extends beyond the receiver.
The benefit of offering help also extends to the giver.
Four things stand out to me about people who help others. They display initiative, confidence, care, and capacity—all extremely positive characteristics. If you are lacking in any of these characteristics, offering to help somebody else can develop them in your life.
For example, you may think you don’t have any time in your life (capacity) to help others. But that might change once you discover how helpful you can be to someone who needs what you can offer—whether in a small way or a big way. Once you realize the joy you can bring to others by helping, you might find out that you had more time available than you thought.
You may lack confidence in your abilities… until you discover the countless ways you can enrich the lives of another. You may lack initiative in life… until you take the bold step to offer help and realize you had initiative all along.
When we offer to help someone else, they benefit. But so do we. Because helping others brings out many of the positive characteristics we desire to be true of us.
Email correction.
I love to volunteer within my sphere of capabilities. However, I have had some bad experiences with some volunteer positions. Now I am not sure I want to volunteer anymore.
Individual volunteers can be overbearing, possessive of their position, political, patronizing, just plain one upping another volunteer. They do not think of the people they are trying to help, but concentrate on their own agendas. I really think there are selfish volunteers out there.
I know I have my faults, but when there are volunteers who undermine me I can’t handle that. Also, when it doesn’t work when there are too many bosses.
I just wanted to say there is a negative side to volunteering.
Thank you, Joshua… very meaningful! My Life Verse is Proverbs 11:25 – “The generous one will prosper; those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed.” Blessings, Russ
Along with your Emergency Response Team, you’ll need to havbe a number
of lists available to utilize during your preparation, emergency and the ehterprise restoration section.
“You may lack confidence in your abilities… until you discover the countless ways you can enrich the lives of another. You may lack initiative in life… until you take the bold step to offer help and realize you had initiative all along.
When we offer to help someone else, they benefit. But so do we. Because helping others brings out many of the positive characteristics we desire to be true of us.”
100% agree! I’ve always felt like it is my life mission to help others and tried to incorporate it as much as possible in my work (corporate finance). Over the past few years I’ve thought “I need to stick with my well-paying job and help others as a ‘hobby'” but lately I’m finding the courage to listen to my gut and pursue this calling both in work and our church.
Thank you for confirming my current journey and for your encouragement/inspiration.
Love this, Joshua. In fact, you were my “Chris Guillebeau”. You featured an early post of mine in one of your weekend newsletters, it was my first one about finding simplicity and I will never forget it. You tweeted me with really kind words that I will never forget. That memory is what keeps me going when I feel like I’m not cut out for this.
You’ve helped me in other ways since too and I’m sure I won’t forget those either because you are my minimalist mentor and I’m always learning from you. So, thank you for who you are and what you do. Your generosity has taught me that helping others with what may be a simple thing for me, may change their self-image, belief in themselves, or heal a hurt that I may not know about.
I appreciate you for your leadership into minimalism and for the ways you’ve supported me with my blog. I will pay it forward, you can be sure.
This is great. I’ve also received help from people I’ve met on Facebook and LinkedIn. Ellory Wells has helped me with some technical issues on my blog. I found my narrator for my audiobooks on LinkedIn. Social networking can have positive results as long as we don’t spend too much time posting kittens and puppies.
One year solved a problem and ended up helping others. Sometimes felt the need to buy something, anything. I decided to buy for teenage girls when our church collected items for children’s Christmas stockings. I had fun looking for inexpensive gifts. I did this all year. I didn’t spend much, I got over the need to buy something for the day, I didn’t bring anything new into my home, and I helped others. I felt better than if I had bought for myself. And I didn’t end up with something at home that I didn’t really want or need. I turned my need into a great solution!
Helping out others is definitely important. I do it, but not as much as I’d like. Thanks for the reminder to be intentional in this area.