My new favorite goal: Bless Others
As the stress and chaos of the Holiday season bares down upon us I thought it was a fitting moment to tell you all about my new favorite goal. Inspired by another Joe’s Goals user I added a goal to my tracker to “Bless Others.” I don’t have that many checks yet, but I’m working on it. The basic idea is to encourage me to go out of my way to benefit or enhance someone else’s day.
My goal is to do something for another person that they can’t or wouldn’t do for themselves. It has to be something real, something that smashes the cold social barrier that keeps most of us from ever touching someone else’s life, something that lets the other person know that they are special and helps them to feel important. It must cost me time or effort and I don’t get a free check simply for holding the door for the person behind me or anything like that. I also don’t get a check for doing something I would normally do as part of my routine at home or at work. And I’m not allowed to do it simply to receive a “thank you”.
I’ve been using the Logbook feature to keep track of my efforts and here are some examples from the past month:
- Introduced a friend to someone who may be able to help him out with his business plans.
- Volunteered at a local theater with my wife.
- Gave up part of the weekend to get projects caught up at work in order to make the following week more productive.
- Took a friend roller-skating for the first time.
- Created a report for someone at work even though they aren’t part of my team anymore and it wasn’t really my responsibility to help them.
- Helped a friend with computer problems.
I’m not posting this to pat myself on the back or the like. I’m only interested in encouraging you to reach out and bless others throughout your day. A goal on Joe’s Goals can be a great reminder to make a difference in other’s lives and I encourage you to add it to your tracker. If every person took ten minutes out of their day to be selfless and really “bless” another person I believe the world would be a dramatically different and more friendly place.
