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 9/17/2007 |
Giving to the world around us
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“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”
– Winston Churchill.
I have a number of Winston Churchill quotes littering the wall surrounding my desk. This is one of them. It doesn’t have anything to do with staring the Germans in the face; it doesn’t have anything to do with persistence. In fact, it doesn’t really seem like most Churchill quotes.
But it typifies the man that Churchill was – and it gives us a model to strive toward.
These days, most of us have our own financial challenges on our mind. Things cost more, we work longer hours than may of our parents did. We try to get the most out of our time and effort.
Those of us who give to others usually do it in a monetary way – and that’s important. But it’s also important to give something only you can give – a gift of yourself.
You might already be giving of yourself to your family – at least let’s hope so. But so much of this world is in terrible shape. Collectively, we can solve many of the problems of the present, if we only turn our individual strengths and talents to working on the solutions of the future.
Most of us have a lot to give. We’ve learned great things over the years we’ve been alive. We’ve gone through challenges, turmoil, trials, and successes. We’ve learned from all of these.
Isn’t it time for us to give something back – more than just a check to a charity?
How can we do this? We can volunteer our services at a local charity. We can fill blogs with our suggested solutions. We can stand up in city council meeting and make suggestions. We can buy books for our local library. We can paint over graffiti in our neighborhoods. We can stand up in church and call others to action. In any number of ways, we can give a little bit of ourselves, and make the world a better place in the bargain.
Yes, it isn’t as easy as writing a check – and most of the time, we aren’t going to see an immediate payback for our work – but most of us who work in business are used to that anyway -- we’re used to giving our all for a cause, and never getting back feedback and praise.
Let’s decide to make the world a better place, through our actions – and let’s start doing it today.
Copyright, 2007, by Daryl R. Gibson and WeekdayWisdom.com. All rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted for the non-commercial redistribution of this document as long as it remains intact with this copyright and all other lines. This license does not extend to the use of this material in a compilation, whether for profit or non-profit use. Join us at http://www.WeekdayWisdom.com.
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