Volunteering catapults my butt out of the house. Otherwise, as I discovered in the last 18 months since retiring from the United States Air Force, I’ll just sit in the fourth-floor loft of our townhouse, tapping away on the laptop about giving back.
Last month I decided to volunteer at least once a week (it’s now up to two or three times a week) with different nonprofits in the DC area, send out a few tweets while volunteering, write about it on my website then link it to Facebook and Twitter. The response from nonprofits and readers has been incredible, but the most surprising response has been from me. As I hop around the DC metro area, volunteering and tweeting, writing and promoting, I realized quite by accident that I’m not doing this because I love to volunteer.
I do it because of a deep-seated need to connect, which I suspect is a need shared by most of us. Even this month’s issue of Spirituality and Health Magazine had an article about how connection combats the pervasive, deadly disease of loneliness. In the month since this project started, as I’ve watched The Fighter with homeless men, cooked dinner at the Ronald McDonald House, and delivered furniture to a family who finally has a home, it’s forced me to leave my comfort zone physically, emotionally and mentally. It’s made me very, very happy.
And it’s something else. It’s this feeling, after decades of searching, that I’m finally doing exactly what I was put on earth to do. It feeds my need to connect, communicate and feel relevant. It even honors (with the great exception of my wonderful and patient husband) my phobia of all things routine.
And I want you to feel as happy as I do.
My dad owned a small lumberyard in Ohio with five employees. Few people knew that he sent 1% of his gross income to a village outside of Port au Prince, Haiti, each month, and over time his donations funded water, electricity, schools and teachers. He often said that the check he wrote to a nun in Haiti each month was the only bill he didn’t mind paying. Dad thought, as many of his generation did, that talking about doing good was wrong, and even negated the good that was done. Here Dad and I differ. People need to know you’re out there making a difference, if only so they can experience the same joy that you do. So to that end I offer three challenges:
- First, find your way of giving back, whatever it is that rocks your soul, and do it.
- Second, pay attention to how you feel, how you change and how you connect when you do that.
- Third, talk it up. Sharing your good feelings isn’t bragging about what you do. Everyone wants to feel good. Talk, write, email, Facebook, Twitter. Just get the word out.
Be the change. Spread the word. Get out and give back.
Jane Hess Collins is the founder of Get Out and Give Back, and helps and encourages people to give back through her writing, speaking, coaching and workshops. You can follow Get Out and Give Back on Facebook and Twitter (@getoutgiveback).