Well yesterday I had a very successful day in regards to helping others out.
A co-worker of mine was telling me yesterday how he needs to sell his house but feels overwhelmed with all on his plate. I pointed out my philosophy when I feel overwhelmed. I babystep things. If I get overwhelmed by things, I can suddenly freeze like a deer stuck in headlights.. and I become so afraid of all I see facing me I become paralyzed to the point of inaction which does me absolutely no good. I have discovered however if I break things down into smaller pieces and arrange how to attack the situation it doesn’t seem like such a battle against an unnamable giant. Then each time I successfully do one of the baby steps I also gain greater confidence in myself and a more positive feeling that I can actually succeed. A positive set of action is then set in place and step by step things get done and what once looked impossible when viewing the large picture gets accomplished.
So we focused on his plans to sell the house. He said he needed to get rid of so much stuff and didn’t know how to go about it. He said he didn’t care about selling it but just wanted the stuff gone. So I suggested he call a bunch of charity services. So he did. However, most of them wanted him to bring the stuff to them. Salvation Army would come pick the stuff up, but he would have to be there (time off from work), he would have to move it all out of the house to the driveway (he just had surgery so this wasn’t really an option and you have to hope for good weather such that the items do not get ruined).
So then… we had a discussion with my friend who had her house burn down in a fire. She has had mostly rental furniture for the past few months in her current home, however the lease on the furniture is about up, so she will be needing more furniture. She is going to go see what furniture he has that she can use, and most likely she can make a bit of a dent in some of the stuff he wants to get rid of.
I then introduced him to the world of FreeCycle. I explained how FreeCycle worked, and that the people would come to his house to pick up the items he put up if they wanted it. He decided to take a look and was suprised at how big of a FreeCycle community existed in his area. So he then tested the water and put a few items up. To his amazement, within 10 minutes the items were all taken! I think he immediately fell in love with FreeCycle, because he realized it was a positive solution to his need to dispell of his belongings, and he could do it at whatever pace he wished.
He then began to tell me that he had a parrot which although he truly liked and enjoyed, he felt he couldn’t take care of anymore. Well good news for him…my friend who’s house burned down? Well she also is a bird person, and has taken in birds for people on numerous occassions, sometimes keeping for her family, othertimes finding good homes for them. She has raised birds as babies.. the ultimate bird person. So I immediately re-connected them to discuss the bird..and now he doesn’t have to worry about his bird anymore.
He is feeling much more positive already, for his unsurmountable problem within a short time has started a baby step method…with several steps taken!
It felt so great knowing that things, some of which I have learned through this whole kindness process is really helping others. It is wonderful to see the positive in action!
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