Volunteering is great, but who has the time? Like exercise, eating veggies, and taking vacations, giving back to our community is one of those “obvious” things that we may feel we should do.
Frequently, though, day-to-day chores may get in the way. We feel too tired at the end of a long day to even think about adding anything else. What we may not realize is that adding volunteer work can-like physical exercise-energize our lives.
One of my friends has a t-shirt that reads: “Volunteer Work: It Doesn’t Pay.” While that may appear to be true, and did elicit a loud chuckle from me, there are many ways in which volunteer work does reward us.
We all have passions. The things we desire to do may be things we are naturally good at; talents, skills we don’t get to use in our present work, or making a contribution towards something that we feel is important to our society.
I’m not sure about you, but my main barrier to volunteer work is that I over-estimate the level of involvement I need to make in order for my efforts to be meaningful. Â That my contribution must involve a high level of time in order to be valuable. Have you ever felt this way?
Taking on too much rapidly leads to burn-out. While it can be amazing to get out there and break new ground, working into the early hours of the morning to achieve our dreams…it’s just as valuable to give back in small ways on a consistent basis.
At Splasm Software, we are given one day a quarter to volunteer. I’ve never had this type of opportunity at previous places of employment. In the past, I’ve had to squeeze in volunteer work in the evenings or on the weekends. Â This quarter, I chose to use the skills I’ve developed here at Splasm, creating newsletters, and made a quarterly newsletter for Spiral Natural Foods, my local co-op:
What are you passionate about?
What is one small way you can use your talents to create the type of community you want to live in, and/or leave to the next generation?
