Sorry, Charles Dickens. It’s certainly not the best of times, but it’s also not the worst of times. Despite everything going on in the world now, you can make it better. Yes, you can, and you don’t have to spend a lot of money or time to do it. Here’s how I found out.
During lunch one day in 2005, my friends and I commiserated about all the huge problems facing us—the wars, crime, poverty, climate change, and more. We felt helpless every time we turned on the news.
But that day I decided that instead of thinking about all the big problems I couldn’t solve, I would look for small problems that I could solve. I committed to doing a nice thing once a week. Not every day, because I’m not that nice. But once a week was a realistic goal for me.
So I picked Monday, my hardest day, because Mondays need the most help. I started a website, DoOneNiceThing.com and posted a new idea each week. Then I sent an email to sixty friends. Word spread by word of mouth and word of mouse. Now Do One Nice Thing has members in ninety countries, and my first book, Do One Nice Thing (Crown Publishers) will be released in May.
I experienced a profound change: I actually started looking forward to Mondays! Helping others feels good, but doing it on a regular basis feels REALLY good. I call our members Nice-o-holics because when they start doing nice things, they get hooked.
Working together we have
• Mailed more than seventy tons of school supplies to U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan and
Iraq, who give them to local children so they can study
• Sent countless books to schools, libraries, and hospitals
• Contributed numerous gifts for foster children, whose birthdays are often forgotten
• Donated tens of thousands of packages of pasta, cans of food, and other food items to food banks, and much more.
I’ve been asked, with so many people out of work or on tight budgets, isn’t it unrealistic to expect people to help each other now?
Actually, it’s the opposite. There are many ways to help that don’t cost a dime, and helping gives us the emotional lift we need now more than ever. In fact, unemployed people are turning up in astonishing numbers to volunteer at food banks, homeless shelters, and nonprofit organizations of every kind. Rather than sitting home alone and feeling like victims, they are using their free time to make a difference.
In the coming month, I’m going to post a series of unique projects the unemployed can easily do – like making “Doggy Pinatas” out of empty paper towel and toilet paper rolls, to comfort animals in shelters, and collecting box tops to raise money for an Appalachian school.
The truth is you don’t need a lot of money to help someone. All you need is a compassionate heart. Maybe we can’t solve the big problems – yet, but by working together we can solve a lot of smaller ones. By helping, we give people hope, and that makes us hopeful too. Won’t you join us?
Give someone a compliment. Email, write, call or tell someone you enjoyed their meal, article, sermon, product or service.
What’s in your closet? Donate clothes, books, sports equipment, art supplies and other things you don’t need to shelters, schools and recreation centers.
Organize your friends or co-workers to get together to clean up a park, make get-well cards for sick children, form a carpool or dinner tree to help out a harried friend, or bring cans of food for the needy instead of gifts for your birthday.
Debbie Tenzer
Founder, Do One Nice Thing
www.DoOneNiceThing.com
