The Best Way You Can Not Feel Helpless

Fred Rogers said, “Look for the helpers” (see last week’s post). But you can do more than that. You can be a helper. Being a helper, not expecting anything in return, is a mindset, a responsibility, and an expression of love. To paraphrase former President Barack Obama said the best way you can not feel helpless is to help others.

To me, there are saints every day. They stand up and help others and live for others and do things for others.

Theodore Melfi

Your Mindset

Service to others is a mindset. You don’t have to belong to a specific religion or even have a lot of money. All you need is the desire to help and the willingness to get up and do something.

No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.

Charles Dickens

The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Volunteer

Image of silhouettes of people helping one up a mountain. the best way you can not feel helpless is to help others.

“The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. Don’t wait for good things to happen to you. If you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world with hope, you will fill yourself with hope.”

Barack Obama

There are thousands of ways you can volunteer. Charitable organizations, libraries, hospitals, soup kitchens, and more rely on volunteers to help them help others. If you’re homebound, you can make things—knit or crochet hats for babies, write letters to soldiers, and so much more. Operation warm has a list of 25 volunteer jobs you can do from home.

Your Path

Each of us has their own path to walk, their own gifts to share. 

Do I feel any pressure as the most decorated Winter Olympian in American history? None at all. The only pressures that I know I face are those of how to pay it forward: How can I continually make a positive impact in people’s lives, help others achieve their dreams, create their own Olympic mindset, creating champions within themselves?

Apolo Ohno

Like Apolo Ohno, you can strive to make a positive impact on people around you. No matter what you choose to do, with an act of giving, of helping others, you improve your mental and physical health

And your best way to not feel helpless is to help others. And the coolest thing of all, is that you also make the world a better place. If you are already a helper, please share what you do in the comments below. If you haven’t found the right way to help yet, did this post help you find a possibility?

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