Marcus Richards
Why should you live more generously? After all, you might think, why should you give up the things that you have for others? But taking a more generous approach to living doesn’t mean giving up but gaining. When you help others, you become more engaged with them, and in turn, you are yourself can be happier. Below are several ways to live your life in this way and benefit from it while also helping others.
Know Your Limits
Living generously doesn’t mean give everything away. In fact, an important aspect of this approach is knowing and enforcing your boundaries. If you give everything away, then you have nothing left for yourself. Identify what you can give and what would be too much. You can go back and review these boundaries from time to time, but only do so on your own initiative and not because someone is pressuring you to do so. In addition, keep in mind that you don’t have to limit your giving to material things. You don’t have to offer any material items if you are unable to do so or you simply don’t want to. Your time, advice, and support are all ways that you can help others as well.
Helping a Student
One great way to extend your generosity is by helping a high school or college student. You might do this by mentoring or by allowing a student to shadow you at your job, learning more about your profession. However, you can also make a real material difference in the life of a college student by cosigning on a student loan. They may be unable to attend school without getting approval for these loans, yet approval may be difficult to come by without a cosigner. At the same time, this is a big responsibility, and you are not obligated to give more than you are able. You can review a guide to help you better understand the pros and cons of cosigning a student loan to decide if this is a step that you want to take.
Donate or Volunteer
If cosigning a student loan seems like too big of a commitment, you could always donate some money to a foundation that supports education or to another cause that you believe in. In addition, many nonprofits are always looking for volunteers to help them achieve their mission. This is a great way of both expanding your generosity and supporting causes that you believe in, whether it’s helping other people, animals, or the environment. Churches and other faith-based organizations may also offer opportunities for expanding your generosity.
Helping in Your Community
Do you have a neighbor who seems to be lonely? Maybe there’s someone on your street who would appreciate an invitation for dinner or having a plate dropped off or just some conversation. While volunteering and donating to organizations is one important way to help people, you shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that there are probably people in your personal life for whom small gestures could mean a great deal. This can be a great way to overcome lack of energy throughout the week for yourself because it is a relatively easy way to insert some action into the otherwise mundane daily schedule you typically keep.
