New Year,New Ideas!

Wow, it's 2011 already! It seems as if everyone this week is discussing resolutions and goals for the new year.

What I'd like to do today is encourage you not to forget to plan who you want to help this year and how you would like to do it. It's so easy to overlook, and yet is so important. I now consider it an essential part of my own personal growth and development each year to give. Planning for it insures that it happens. In addition, opportunities also arise during the year which I donate for or volunteer as I can. Both are important to me as well as those who are helped.

Each year I choose a different local group to volunteer with. For now that is my preference. Doing this allows me to do a wide range of tasks. I learn new skills each time, and am able to share my own talents and skills which I already have also. It gives me a different experience and group of people to work with each time. I thrive on variety and have lots of interests so this suits me well.

I know several people who have one group that they volunteer with every single year. They enjoy being with the same group of people and the familiarity of the tasks. They became important to their particular group due to how skilled they are, and are able to establish close friendships that way. Many eventually become leaders in their chosen group. Even those who don't choose to take leadership roles find that their input is more valued due to their length of service and experience with that group.

There are others who volunteer for several groups or one time only projects such as fundraisers. Some people only help out for a specific season such as Christmas. What really matters is that you figure out what way you'd like to help out most and then begin doing that.

The possibilities for volunteering are almost infinite. Whether you think you might be interested in being a scout leader, school volunteer, serving soup at a food kitchen,helping the area you live, cleaning up the environment, taking in animals, or something else completely, I implore you to get started as soon as possible.

Take at least the action step of looking into volunteer opportunities in the area you get most excited about. If you don't feel interested in anything specific, why not try helping whoever is most in need? When you find a good fit for yourself, you will feel so much gratification you will wonder why you didn't start sooner.

Now on to money and other donations. ;)

Most of us don't like the word budgeting. The truth is however, that when we know and plan where our money goes to it becomes a tool for us to enhance our lives instead of a burden. Whether you are a religious or spiritual person, or even an atheist or agnostic, most people agree that giving 10% of your income to help others or good causes helps our world and is very reasonable as well as doable. It's up to you to decide your own personal values regarding this. I can tell you from my own personal experience and from hearing so many wonderful stories from others that the rewards from doing so are immense. Giving something, no matter how large or how small, is always meaningful and helpful.

People who are giving, caring, thoughtful, and loving are attractive to others. We like those we feel will help us if we ourselves should ever need it. When we give freely of our time, talents, and assets we increase our own self-esteem, because we feel good about who we have become.

In many instances of giving we see or find out the results- families who are fed or receiving much needed dental or medical care, new trees growing, people being offered training in skills so they can find jobs, homeless people who now have hope for a future, schools who now have supplies so they can adequately teach the children who are the world's future, and so on.

Please take some time this month to decide:
1. Who will you donate money to this year?
2. Who will you share some of your no longer needed goods with?
3.Who you will volunteer your time with?

Then, take the action to do each of these things.

I promise your year will be more satisfying and rewarding. What you give always comes back to you in some manner- sometimes in astonishingly wonderful ways. Life is a precious gift we are all given. It's time we all give back as we can.

Happy New Year!