It is one of the beautiful compensations in this life that
no one can sincerely try to help another
without helping himself.
Often, when we cannot get focused or keep our own motivation flowing, we can help ourselves a lot by taking a break to lend someone else a helping hand. Helping others is a very important way to make yourself feel good and feel positive about your own life. When you help others you will feel better and more motivated about the things going on in your own life. There are many ways you can help others, including: sharing knowledge, visiting others, helping people see the positive and much, much more.
Knowledge
Sharing your knowledge is always a good thing. But remember, there is a significant difference between sharing your knowledge with people as opposed to giving them your opinion. If you have something to say that is helpful and educational, this is worth sharing. Be sure that you are absolutely clear when you are instead offering someone an opinion. This will avoid confusion and bad feelings down the road especially if you should hurt someone’s feelings.
Sharing knowledge means you talk about things that you actually know about. For instance, if you are educated or skilled on a specific subject, perhaps you can offer to teach someone how to do some of things you know. There are always people who are eager and excited about learning something new. These interactions where you get to share your knowledge and abilities will actually make you feel good.
Time with friends
It is not uncommon for people to be negative or have bad attitudes. If you know one or more of these people, you really don’t want to spend an excessive amount of time hanging out with them trying to turn a negative situation into a positive experience. You may find that their attitude begins to rub off on you, and that you are also becoming more negative.
Some people are so negative that they are difficult to be around. It can be very frustrating. As you work toward your own daily motivational techniques, you might find it hard to share space with them. It is a good thing to make an effort to help these people, but be careful not to get sucked into the pit of doom with them.
When you try to help negative people by spending time with them, don’t count on revolutionizing their way of thinking. Your positive attitude can be contagious, but so can theirs. When someone is down in the dumps or feeling negative, you can try to help them by pointing out the positive side of the situation. You can also try to help them find some good in the negative things that are happening in their lives. Perhaps you can help them by getting them to see that they have little or no control over the situations. The sooner most people come to realize that they have little or no control over certain issues in their lives, they are able to let it go and relax.
Spending time with negative friends means sharing your positive attitude. You want to share your energy, but be careful not to force yourself and your attitude on anyone.
You cannot change other people, they must ultimately choose to make the change themselves.
Find the good in others
At times it may be difficult to see, but everyone does have a good side. Some people may strike you as being entirely negative about everything. Usually at first meeting these people often come across as confrontational, unfriendly or frustrating. Try to look deeper to find the positive side.
When you around negative people their negativity may eventually have an impact on you. It is important to try and find the good in others. The more good you find in others the easier it will be to talk with them and be around them. If you’re forced to be around negative people, such as a meeting or another situation that you cannot avoid, finding and reflecting on the positive will help you make it through these forced encounters.
Being more positive with everyone
Even while you are looking for the positive aspects in negative people, you need to remain positive in everything that you do. Be positive with the people you are around on a daily basis. The more positive you are to people the more motivated you will feel as well.
This does not mean that you have to suck-up to everyone when you are trying to be positive. If you are around people you don’t like, you still don’t have to be negative in return. You can still be a courteous, well-mannered, compassionate and positive person and find the good in everything. If you can’t find the good in the person, reflect on something else positive. Perhaps the cup of coffee you had this morning may have tasted great, or you slept particularly well, or you got through traffic much more easily, or had a great CD in your car on your way into work, etc.
You must remain focused on the little things and find the positive in them. The more positive you can find in the people and the things around you, the happier you will be. You will also be more motivated to make it through every day and be on your way to reaching your goals.
Let people know you care
One of the ways that you can be more motivated and feel great about yourself is let the people around you know that you care about them. Just like the little things in life that you enjoy so much, it is the little things for others that will help you feel great too. You will feel great making someone else feel good. And, sometimes you will feel even better doing things for people without them knowing who is responsible.
What kinds of things can you do for others? You might consider sending token items to friends and family, like cards and flowers. Anyone you care about should know that you are not taking them for granted. You don’t have to spend a great deal of money. If you don’t have money to spend, there are many other ways to do nice things for people. The free things that you can do for people can include something as simple as pouring them a cup of coffee, washing their car or any number of other things.
Letting people know that you care about them is important to them, but will also make you feel good as well. You should always let people know that you care and that you appreciate them. There are so many ways that you can let other people know that they are important to you and it doesn’t always require spending money.
Thoughts?
photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/theloushe/4770833899/sizes/z/in/photostream/
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