This life lesson relates to my previous blog post #9 Give Blood.
Whenever I am able to help someone, it makes me feel good. I enjoy learning, whether it be university studies, reading books or life lessons. As I learn more, it increases my capacity to help more. Everyone experiences different struggles at different points in their life. If I have already experienced a struggle that someone else is going through it means I am able to help them. Even if I have not, I can still try to help them through offering other advice.
In the case of donating blood, I didn’t actually feel like I had done much but at the same time I felt like I helped someone. Or at least my efforts may help someone in the future. The truth is I will never know where my blood ended up or whether it actually helped someone. Regardless, I still felt gratification from donating and trusted that the system would help someone in need in the future. I consider this to be indirect help. This is the same as when you donate money to a charity. You will never know what your $10 actually funded or what it bought but that doesn’t matter. It matters that you recognised a good cause and trusted that the system used your donation to help others.
The contrast to indirect help is direct help. This type of help is where your immediate efforts result in helping others, such as holding the door for someone with crutches. In these scenarios the person you have helped has the opportunity to personally thank you for your efforts. Naturally, I think people get more satisfaction from this type of help, compared to indirect help. Regardless of the type of help it always feels good to help others.
The main reason for starting this website was my drive to help others. Since I started my list in 2010, I have had numerous people tell me that they have started their bucket list after seeing what I have been done. It felt good every time someone told me that. Many times, after I posted one of my bucket list photos to Facebook, I had strangers congratulate me and send a personal message saying to keep at it.
I believe that sharing my stories and life lessons, in addition to the photos, will helps others along their journeys. My hope is that the stories and life lessons will be relevant to others and that they find inspiration or guidance through them. It has taken me many hours to set up this website and I have spent a lot of time writing these stories to provide quality content. As long as my stories can help one person, all those hours behind a keyboard will be worth it.
When have you helped others? Did it feel good? Let me know if the comments below.
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Dave has been on a mission, since 2010, to cross off the 100 items on his bucket list. The stories of his adventures are complimented by life lessons learned along the way and his travel tips are unique to his experiences.
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