Have you ever sat back and watched people bustling about? Where is everyone going? Why is everyone running from one thing to the next? When did we forget to take the time to notice those around us? What would a complete stranger do if you helped them carry their groceries to the car? What about if you paid for their coffee or help them picked up dropped items. This is going to be my daily challenge. Find one person that I can go above and beyond for and see what their reaction is. Think I can do it? Come with me along for my journey.
When was the last time that you had someone do something for you that made you think "Wow, they really went out of their way for me." I have to admit that I can't remember the last time I felt this way. I have decided that I want to be the person that makes another say that because I went out of my way to help them when they needed it. Maybe it will inspire them to "pay it forward" and brighten the next person's life that they come across. How challenging is this going to be? I have 30 days to find out!
I have been in the position many times where I have had a child on my hip and a hand full of groceries. Trying my hardest to keep my balancing act going so I don't drop the child or overfilled bags, only to have the person in front of me not even take a second to hold the door open for me. I am then having the door slam in my face and struggle to keep my juggling act going. Is it really that hard to hold the door? It makes me think am I guilty of this? Do I really just pretend like the person behind me is not there? Do I hold the door open?
I have always tried to raise my kids to treat others as you would like to be treated, but am I two faced when it comes to this? Do I help the person next to me as much as I would like to be helped? I think this quest is going to really open my eyes and hopefully anyone who comes across my path during my quest. I am hoping to show my kids that as little as 2 minutes of your day helping someone out could really make the difference in your day and even more for theirs. I know in this day and age you are taught not to talk to strangers and there are a lot of weirdos out there, but there are lots of decent people that you come in contact with every day. These people don't deserve to be ignored just as you don't deserve to be ignored. They are just as busy and important as you are. So there no reason to pretend like they aren't there.
People seemed to be hurried all the time and try to act like they don't have time for the person next to them. Do you think that if I were to go out of my way helping them with paying for their coffee or carrying their groceries will it inspire them to do the same for someone else? The goal of my personal quest is to make an impact on someone every day so maybe they will stop and say wow maybe I need to start paying attention to what I am doing and the others around me.
I know that I am just as guilty as the next person. I work full time, am a full time student, and a mother of three kids, so my time is precious but I don't want to forget that I am not the only person in the world. Since my time is very limited, I spend my day very planned out running from one thing on my agenda to the next. Very rarely stopping to take notice as to what is going on around me. I want to stop this cycle. I am taking classes to fulfill my lifelong dream of being a nurse. Who wants a nurse that isn't helpful or willing to go out of her way? I think that this quest is going to help me be the best nurse that I can be, not to mention the best neighbor, mother, sister, and wife as well.
I want to be able to make an impact on my whole family even my sisters, mother, husband, and kids. If they see me going out of my way maybe they will follow suit. I want to expose a more generous and caring side to everyone. I want my family to know that it is okay to stop what you are doing and help someone out. I don't want to raise kids who think they are the center of the universe. Maybe if everyone does a personal quest of this sort that it will help to change the world. I am probably dreaming a bit there, but what happens with it is to be discovered.
With my quest I am going to try to be inventive and do something different every day. I am going to try to pick different platforms where to do my quest at too. It could be at the grocery store, at a DMACC campus, at the dentist's office. Just basically any place that I see an opportunity to do something to make a difference to their day. I am sure that I am going to get mixed responses, but I hoping that I am going to get lots of smiles. A smile or a “thank you” is all it is doing to take for me to know that I have accomplished my personal quest. I want to make them happy and make them feel like not everyone is too hurried and rushed to notice that they are struggling and could use a bit of help.
I have always been someone who naturally wants to help other people such as charities, but felt that I didn't really have the money to make a REAL difference. I recently saw the movie “Pay It Forward” and it got me thinking that really I can do so much for the people that I come into contact with on a daily basis. It made me realize that you don't have to do things on a big scale that just a little bit of my time could potentially make a difference. I am hoping to open the eyes of the person I am helping and those around me as well. Show them that the little things in life really do count. I hope to accomplish a sense of happiness because I was able to assist someone who didn't expect it. Along the way I hope to change my own attitude that yes I do have 5 minutes to help my neighbor shovel her driveway. If I do this quest properly then it is going to be win-win situation for everyone.
I think the most challenging part of this may be approaching people as I can tend to be a bit shy. This personal quest is going to take me going outside of my personal realm to get it accomplished. I also think that getting people to let me help them in some occasions may be be difficult as well. They may not want my help or think that I am going to expect something in return. I could also have days where I don't particularly come across someone who needs my help. In this instance I am going to have to use my imagination. I think that this quest is going to really challenge me but in a good way. It will make me use my compassion, imagination, personality, and my people skills.
My rules with the quest are going to be to do at least one nice thing everyday. I am going to try to involve my family whenever I can. I am going to try to do something different every day and try to choose someone from every age group. I want to see how a younger person may react to my help compared to an elderly person. I want to be able to see which one is more appreciative. I have a feeling that there is going to be a huge difference in reactions and am excited to see the results.
I will be blogging every day about the person I helped, what I did, what they said, and what their reaction was after. I am also going to record what it felt like when I helped them out. I imagine with some people it might be a bit harder to help because they may just think that I am weird, but I am hoping for mostly positive responses. Enough positive responses to keep this quest going for the rest of my life. I don't want to get back into my slump of running the rat race and forgetting about everyone around me.
I think this quest is significant because I am hoping to change my daily life and the way some people think. I know that humans overall are giving people but I think that it takes a major crisis for us to show our caring side, such as the Haiti earthquake. Many people are being giving and generous to help out the injured or survivors of a natural disaster, but what about the regular people they come in contact with on a daily basis? I am sure that a mom who has had a terrible day, just getting off of work and at the store picking up dinner for her family would really appreciate having someone help her carry her groceries to the car. I need to get in the mindset of thinking it is just 2 minutes out of my day to make her smile and let her know that shes not invisible. She works just as hard as I do so why doesn't she deserve a little bit of my time? I hope that this will make her happy and make her evening even more enjoyable.
My goal with my blogs is to show all of the classmates how my quest has gone and what impact it has made on me and my family. I want to show everyone that, yes it is possible to do things for people that we don't know and just how much it can mean to do something very small for a person. Who knows I just might even inspire some of my classmates to start making an effort to go out of their way to help someone they don't know. I know the film “Pay It Forward” started a movement of its own. Maybe I will be so lucky as to start something as grand.
I am very excited to get started with my quest and wondering what sort of an adventure and impact it will be for me. I wonder if it will be something that I will be able to continue the rest of my life. I guess any change is better, even if I am not able to do something nice every day of the week. At least I can change myself enough if I see someone in need that I am able to stop what I am doing to help them out. Not worrying if I am going to have 5 minutes less to watch the shows that I TIVO-ed. Maybe it will even change me enough to rub off onto my family. I can only dream right now but hoping to turn that dream into a reality. I am ready, willing, and excited to embark in this quest and anxious for the results. I hope to be able to make an impact on many people with my quest.
No comments:
Post a Comment