Mark Cole: Do For Others What They Can’t Do For Themselves

Christmas is my favorite time of year. I could list many reasons why, but the main reason that it is my favorite is because it is because it is built on giving. It’s built on generosity.

And it got me thinking about my own life and the people around me. How am I spreading generosity this Christmas season? I want to be known for living a life of generosity, not just giving gifts.

While you might be done giving presents this year, there’s still plenty of time to give the people around you a little something extra–to do something for them that will jump start their 2019. I believe that whatever I have been given is to be shared with others. And this goes far beyond a gift card to Starbucks.

Doing for others what they can’t do for themselves is really a matter of attitude. I have observed that no matter how much or how little I think I have, I still have the ability to do for others what they cannot do for themselves.

Here are four areas that I believe will spur you on to think outside the box with your generosity while the Christmas spirit lingers:

1. Introduce others to people they can’t know on their own

You don’t have to know someone famous to help others in this area. Just make connections. Be the bridge in people’s relationships with others. This will go further than you can imagine!

2. Take others to places where they can’t go on their own

Experiences are powerful because they are memorable. You may have the power to give someone an experience that seems inaccessible. Start with your family. Take your children places they could not go on their own and watch how much value it adds to them!

3. Offer others opportunities they can’t reach on their own

The great orator of ancient Greece, Demosthenes said this, “Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.” Help people win by giving them opportunities, and you will win with them.

4. Share ideas with others that they don’t possess on their own

Every product begins with an idea. Every service, every business, every book, and every invention—they all begin with an idea. Ideas are what make the world move forward.

Never forget—we all need others to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. Nothing great was ever accomplished alone.

My friends, I encourage you to apply this advice from Henry Van Dyke: “There is a loftier ambition than merely to stand high in the world. It is to stoop down and lift mankind a little higher.”