The Reward of Helping Others
Nothing else compares to the personal satisfaction and fulfillment of helping other people bring their dreams to life. Beyond the intrinsic satisfaction, however, is the true power of this principle -- When you help improve the lives of other people, your own life will improve.....in many ways.
When you consistently undertake efforts and actions to help other people grow, you create important cause-and-effect results:
1. When you add value and purpose to someone else's life -- you add more value and purpose to your own life.
This is a unique "gift" that grows by the giving of it, and adds to your own life in many ways. It is also one of those gifts that you do not lose by giving it away -- when you share it, the other person gets the benefit of it, but you still keep it..and it grows.
2. When you help someone else get better, you increase your Self-Esteem.
This is a wonderful reward you receive for helping someone get better. When your self-esteem grows, so do you, in every positive way. You become more confident. You have less fear--because you can see your strengths more clearly. You're more willing to step forward and take good chances that help you grow in your own life. You accomplish more, you're more fulfilled as a person, and you open up to greater opportunities in front of you. So....you do more and create more good. And when you're doing good things you feel better about yourself....increasing your self-esteem....and the positive cycle begins again.
3. When you help other people get better, you naturally and automatically learn and practice positive leadership traits.
Whether you started out wanting to be a "leader" or not, if you believe in others and you help them improve their lives, you become a leader.
Your "leadership" role may simply be the example you set. Or you may go beyond that, and more actively share your experiences and your progress with others. Or you may go to the next step, and "train" others, so they can learn what you've discovered.
Bottom line....when you help other people improve their lives, you will become, in a very natural way, a leader.
4. When you help other people get better, you expand your focus in life in many ways.
When you're actively helping other people improve their lives, your focus changes -- from just you and your world, to them and their world. Your attitude takes a shift upwards. You "feel" the benefits you're creating in other people's lives, and your own daily zest and enthusiasm for living increases as a result. You move from being a "bystander" to someone who is "making a difference" -- and you can definitely feel the difference.
The result of that difference can be a subtle as what you choose to do tomorrow, or how you talk to people, to your relationship with your family getting better, or your own personal/professional goals becoming clearer and your action steps more clearly defined, so you're more sure about what to do next.
Your own successes are always tied in some way to the betterment you are helping create in the lives of others.
Put this great concept of personal growth into practice in your own life every day.
Source: "The Gift, The 12 Greatest Tools of Personal Growth -- and How to Put Them Into Practice," Shad Helmstetter, Ph.D.
