Monday Spotlight: Selflessness

Last week was the premiere of a new show on ABC called You Deserve It.  This show allows someone to play a game show and win money for a loved one who they feel deserves it.  To see this put on prime time television and having regular people being the ones responsible for giving these great sums of money is an extremely phenomenal thing.  This got me thing about being selfless acts and looking at the rate of selflessness we are as a society.  We are constantly full of selfless acts when it comes in front of us.  This is volunteering with a club, donating money and food to a food drive.  We tend to forget about these selfless opportunities when we are in the middle of our lives.  Part of my goal with Project Kinect is to work on that and make it a reflex on when an opportunity to be selfless comes up.

I was looking through different blogs to get inspiration on this post and while I was on Serene Journey, I came across this post on ideas for random acts of kindness and the author stated it very clear on how we can get absent from a continued selfless routine.

“As we go about our day, it’s easy to become consumed by our own reality walking around with blinders on completely unaware of what’s going on around us. It’s a little frightening to take stock of how modern conveniences have already put us out of touch with other real living, breathing, human beings. ATM’s, self checkouts, vending machines, and computers (email, instant messaging etc…). There is a tendency to become a little self-absorbed and selfish. Don’t get me wrong I welcome change and advancement I just think we’re losing touch with each other.”

My thoughts of what I wanted out of Project Kinect really comes through with this excerpt.  Because of this, I feel that it is beneficial to share the suggestions from this blog: Selfless Acts-Do Something Nice to Restore Faith in Humanity.

  1. Cook a meal. I do this occasionally for my family (mom, dad and sisters) if they are coming home from holidays or a weekend away. I do it so they don’t have to. Trick is to not expect a dinner waiting for you when you return from holidays and to truly be ok with it.
  2. Pay it forward. Occasionally I will pay for the car behind me in line at the drive thru. Obviously I’m not going to break the bank, but a cup of coffee or two isn’t going to break me and it just might make their day.
  3. Donate.In the spirit of uncluttering and organizing donate items that are still in good shape and that could be useful to someone else. We routinely fill boxes with items from around the house that we no longer need and drop them at the nearest thrift store or Salvation Army Depot. It makes it easier to get rid of items if you know they will go to another good home and not just in a landfill somewhere.
  4. Volunteer. This is a biggie. Volunteer your time, services or expertise to an organization that really needs your help. My husband is a computer programmer and volunteers his time and expertise to a non-profit organization by creating and maintaining their website. I really enjoy photography and well…practice makes perfect so I volunteered at a non-profit organization to take pictures at their various events. This freed up the organizers to focus on the event and they knew that everything was still be captured.
  5. Do something nice. It’s usually the little things that have the biggest impact. This may sound a bit odd but each and every morning in the winter I start the car for my husband. We live on the Canadian Prairies and it’s COLD!  So getting into a warm car when it’s –45C is a lovely thing!
  6. Be courteous. Our society seems to be forgetting a bit of common courtesy or consideration for others. A real simple act of courtesy is to just hold the door for someone. Whether they are struggling with shopping bags, lugging strollers and children or just exiting the store behind you, simply hold the door and let them through. It doesn’t hurt to smile as you do!
  7. Listen. Lending an ear to someone who just needs to talk is one of the best things you can do. You don’t always have to try and solve the problem (if there is one), just listen. Sometimes just talking about things without being judged can make a world of difference to someone’s day.

I feel that because it isn’t in our normal routine to consciously do these things routinely, it is good to find inspiration in other people’s stories.  These stories, whether it is that feel good warm fuzzies or just plain guilt, get us thinking more in the correct direction and pushes us to taking action.  We must remember that nothing will change for the better if we all don’t get involved.  While I was looking for different examples of selfless acts, I came across this story at RenseThis story shares how one person helped an old woman with the installation of her carpet.

Please feel free to share with me selfless acts of kindness that you see in your daily routines.  Feel free to leave a comment or email me at gregg@projectkinect.com.  As I begin to close up the first year of Project Kinect, I am putting together other people’s stories and these emails would be great additions.